Issue 10, 2024

Crystal property engineering using molecular–supramolecular equivalence: mechanical property alteration in hydrogen bonded systems

Abstract

Most crystal engineering strategies exercised until now mainly rely on the alteration of weak non-covalent interactions to design structures and thus properties. Examples of mechanical property alteration for a given structure type are rare with only a few halogen bonded cases. The modular nature of halogen bonds with interaction strength tunability makes the task straightforward to obtain property differentiated crystals. However, the design of such crystals using hydrogen bond interactions has proven to be non-trivial, because of its relatively higher difference in bonding energies, and more importantly, disparate geometries of the functional groups. In the present crystal property engineering exercise, with the support of CSD analysis, we replaced a supramolecular precursor that leads to plastically bendable crystals, with a molecular equivalent, and obtained an equivalent crystal structure. As a result, the new structure, with comparable hydrogen bonding chains, produces elastically bendable single crystals (as opposed to plastically bendable crystals). In addition, the crystals show multidirectional (here two) elastic bending as well as rare elastic twisting. The occurrence of multiple isostructural examples, including a solid solution, with identical properties further demonstrates the general applicability of the proposed model. Crystals cannot display the concerned mechanical property in the absence of the desired structure type and fracture in a brittle manner on application of an external stress. Nanomechanical experiments and energy framework calculations also complement our results. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a rational crystal engineering exercise using solely hydrogen bond interactions to obtain property differentiated crystals. This strategy namely molecular–supramolecular equivalence has been unexplored till now to tune mechanical properties, and hence is useful for crystal property engineering.

Graphical abstract: Crystal property engineering using molecular–supramolecular equivalence: mechanical property alteration in hydrogen bonded systems

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
02 12 2023
Accepted
24 1 2024
First published
26 1 2024
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2024,15, 3578-3587

Crystal property engineering using molecular–supramolecular equivalence: mechanical property alteration in hydrogen bonded systems

S. Mondal, C. M. Reddy and S. Saha, Chem. Sci., 2024, 15, 3578 DOI: 10.1039/D3SC06462J

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