Subtly tuning intermolecular hydrogen bonds in hybrid crystals to achieve ultrahigh-temperature molecular ferroelastic

Molecular-based ferroic phase-transition materials have attracted increasing attention in the past decades due to their promising potential as sensors, switches, and memory. One of the long-term challenges in the development of molecular-based ferroic materials is determining how to promote the ferroic phase-transition temperature (T c). Herein, we present two new hexagonal molecular perovskites, (nortropinonium)[CdCl3] (1) and (nortropinium)[CdCl3] (2), to demonstrate a simple design principle for obtaining ultrahigh-T c ferroelastic phase transitions. They consist of same host inorganic chains but subtly different guest organic cations featuring a rigid carbonyl and a flexible hydroxyl group in 1 and 2, respectively. With stronger hydrogen bonds involving the carbonyl but a relatively lower decomposition temperature (T d, 480 K), 1 does not exhibit a crystalline phase transition before its decomposition. The hydroxyl group subtly changes the balance of intermolecular interactions in 2via reducing the attractive hydrogen bonds but increasing the repulsive interactions between adjacent organic cations, which finally endows 2 with an enhanced thermal stability (T d = 570 K) and three structural phase transitions, including two ferroelastic phase transitions at ultrahigh T c values of 463 K and 495 K, respectively. This finding provides important clues to judiciously tuning the intermolecular interactions in hybrid crystals for developing high-T c ferroic materials.

Exceptionally high work density of a ferroelectric dynamic organic crystal around room temperature

Dynamic organic crystals are rapidly gaining traction as a new class of smart materials for energy conversion, however, they are only capable of very small strokes (<12%) and most of them operate through energetically cost-prohibitive processes at high temperatures. We report on the exceptional performance of an organic actuating material with exceedingly large stroke that can reversibly convert energy into work around room temperature. When transitioning at 295–305 K on heating and at 265–275 K on cooling the ferroelectric crystals of guanidinium nitrate exert a linear stroke of 51%, the highest value observed with a reversible operation of an organic single crystal actuator. Their maximum force density is higher than electric cylinders, ceramic piezoactuators, and electrostatic actuators, and their work capacity is close to that of thermal actuators. This work demonstrates the hitherto untapped potential of ionic organic crystals for applications such as light-weight capacitors, dielectrics, ferroelectric tunnel junctions, and thermistors.

Organic electronics requires dynamic materials, however, most of them have small strokes and operate at high temperatures. Here, the authors describe organic crystal that repeatedly expands and contracts nearly half its length around room temperature.

Molecular tiltation and supramolecular interactions induced uniaxial NTE and biaxial PTE in bis-imidazole-based co-crystals

Uniaxial NTE and biaxial PTE has been observed in bis-imidazole-based co-crystals induced by molecular tiltation and supramolecular interactions.

Thermal Expansion Properties and Mechanochemical Synthesis of Stoichiometric Cocrystals Containing Tetrabromobenzene as a Hydrogen- and Halogen-Bond Donor

The solution and mechanochemical synthesis of two cocrystals that differ in the stoichiometric ratio of the components (stoichiometric cocrystals) is reported. The components in the stoichiometric cocrystals interact through hydrogen or hydrogen/halogen bonds and differ in π-stacking arrangements. The difference in structure and noncovalent interactions affords dramatically different thermal expansion behaviors in the two cocrystals. At certain molar ratios, the cocrystals are obtained concomitantly; however, by varying the ratios, a single stoichiometric cocrystal is achieved using mechanochemistry.

A survey of thermal expansion coefficients for organic molecular crystals in the Cambridge Structural Database

Typical ranges of thermal expansion coefficients are established for organic molecular crystals in the Cambridge Structural Database. The CSD Python API is used to extract 6201 crystal structures determined close to room temperature and at least one lower temperature down to 90 K. The data set is dominated by structure families with only two temperature points and is subject to various sources of error, including incorrect temperature reporting and missing flags for variable-pressure studies. For structure families comprising four or more temperature points in the range 90-300 K, a linear relationship between unit-cell volume and temperature is shown to be a reasonable approximation. For a selected subset of 210 structures showing an optimal linear fit, the volumetric expansion coefficient at 298 K has mean 173 p.p.m. K-1 and standard deviation 47 p.p.m.  K-1. The full set of 6201 structures shows a similar distribution, which is fitted by a normal distribution with mean 161 p.p.m. K-1 and standard deviation 51 p.p.m. K-1, with excess population in the tails mainly comprising unreliable entries. The distribution of principal expansion coefficients, extracted under the assumption of a linear relationship between length and temperature, shows a positive skew and can be approximated by two half normal distributions centred on 33 p.p.m. K-1 with standard deviations 40 p.p.m. K-1 (lower side) and 56 p.p.m. K-1 (upper side). The distribution for the full structure set is comparable to that of the test subset, and the overall frequency of biaxial and uniaxial negative thermal expansion is estimated to be < 5% and ∼30%, respectively. A measure of the expansion anisotropy shows a positively skewed distribution, similar to the principal expansion coefficients themselves, and ranges based on suggested half normal distributions are shown to highlight literature cases of exceptional thermal expansion.

Co-crystals of polyhalogenated diaminobenzonitriles with 18-crown-6: effect of fluorine on the stoichiometry and supramolecular structure

Fluorine in the ortho-position of diaminobenzonitrile promotes the formation of the N–H⋯NC bond which results in a 3D supramolecular structure of the co-crystal.

Multifunctional Features of Organic Charge-Transfer Complexes: Advances and Perspectives

The recent progress of charge-transfer complexes (CTCs) for application in many fields, such as charge transport, light emission, nonlinear optics, photoelectric conversion, and external stimuli response, makes them promising candidates for practical utility in pharmaceuticals, electronics, photonics, luminescence, sensors, molecular electronics and so on. Multicomponent CTCs have been gradually designed and prepared as novel organic active semiconductors with ideal performance and stability compared to single components. In this review, we mainly focus on the recently reported development of various charge-transfer complexes and their performance in field-effect transistors, light-emitting devices, lasers, sensors, and stimuli-responsive behaviors.

Extraordinary anisotropic thermal expansion in photosalient crystals

Although a plethora of metal complexes have been characterized, those having multifunctional properties are very rare. This article reports three isotypical complexes, namely [Cu(benzoate)L 2], where L = 4-styryl-pyridine (4spy) (1), 2'-fluoro-4-styryl-pyridine (2F-4spy) (2) and 3'-fluoro-4-styryl-pyridine (3F-4spy) (3), which show photosalient behavior (photoinduced crystal mobility) while they undergo [2+2] cyclo-addition. These crystals also exhibit anisotropic thermal expansion when heated from room temperature to 200°C. The overall thermal expansion of the crystals is impressive, with the largest volumetric thermal expansion coefficients for 1, 2 and 3 of 241.8, 233.1 and 285.7 × 10-6 K-1, respectively, values that are comparable to only a handful of other reported materials known to undergo colossal thermal expansion. As a result of the expansion, their single crystals occasionally move by rolling. Altogether, these materials exhibit unusual and hitherto untapped solid-state properties.

Effects of dynamic pedal motion and static disorder on thermal expansion within halogen-bonded co-crystals

Thermal expansion is investigated for halogen-bonded co-crystals containing molecules that exhibit dynamic motion, lack motion ability, or experience static disorder.

Influence of molecular width on the thermal expansion in solids

It has been shown that the thermal expansion would be higher in a direction along which the molecular width is shorter and it would be smaller if the molecular width is longer along that direction.

Reversible thermosalience of 4-aminobenzonitrile

Crystals of 4-aminobenzonitrile grown by sublimation undergo a reversible thermosalient phase change during cooling and subsequent heating. Single-crystal diffraction studies have been carried out at 20 K intervals during cooling from 300 to 100 K in order to explain the structural change that occurs.

Covalent bond formation via a [2+2] cycloaddition reaction as a tool to alter thermal expansion parameters of organic co-crystals

The thermal expansion properties of a co-crystal before and after undergoing a covalent-bond-generating reaction are discussed.