Rahul
Banerjee
*
Physical/Materials Chemistry Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Dr. HomiBhabha Road, Pune 411008, India. E-mail: r.banerjee@ncl.res.in
X-ray crystallography has always played a crucial role in the growth and development of the subject of crystal engineering. This includes the design of organic and metal–organic materials, a research area that is particularly strong in India. Research in crystal engineering is extremely interdisciplinary [an inevitable need of modern science], cutting across the boundaries of organic, inorganic and physical chemistry. Not only are a large number of independent research groups working in many areas of crystal engineering in India, but 8–10% of the papers which appear in CrystEngComm are from India. Hence, the CrystEngComm Editorial Board has rightly decided to focus on a stand-alone themed collection featuring papers solely from India to commemorate IYCr2014. As guest editor, it is a real pleasure for me to be able to present a collection of papers produced by senior and young scientists from India, covering a wide variety of topics in crystal engineering. For me, the highlight of this IYCR2014: India themed collection is the article by Desiraju and co-workers on the understanding of supramolecular synthons in organic solids using simple IR spectroscopy (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42156B). Furthermore, in this collection there are contributions highlighting different sections of crystal engineering, including papers on polymorphism and pseudo-polymorphism by Reddy (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42159G), and Thakuria and Nangia (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42301H); on coordination polymers or metal–organic frameworks by Natarajan (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42311E), Ghoshal (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42441C), Konar (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42451K), Nagaraja (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42454E), Bharadwaj (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42628A), Biradha (DOI: 10.1039/C4CE00123K), and Das (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42637H); on co-crystals and salts of pharmaceutical compounds by Nangia (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42347F); on supramolecular synthons by Sarma (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42332H), and by Saha (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42449A); on the directed self-assembly of organic species by Ghosh (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42509F), Chandrasekar (DOI: 10.1039/C4CE00084F), and Moorthy (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42515K); on solid-state photo-reactivity by Haldar (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42582G); polyoxometalates by Roy (DOI: 10.1039/C4CE00115J) and examinations of the role of weaker forces in the recognition of anions by Ghosh (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42440E), and Dastidar (DOI: 10.1039/C3CE42655F).
I am very happy to conclude that the future of crystal engineering research and the activities of CrystEngComm are very bright in India. I am certainly looking forward to watching and participating in the growth and development of this field over the next few years. Overall, this collection demonstrates the strength of crystal engineering in India.
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