The formation of the plastic crystal phase in several pentaerythritol derivatives

Typical at glance but interesting when analyzed in detail: A story of Tris hydration

This paper provides results of dielectric relaxation (DR) spectroscopy of aqueous solutions of tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris) covering frequencies of 0.05 ≤ ν/GHz ≤89. The DR spectra can be well fit by a sum of Cole-Cole relaxation, assigned to the solute, and 2 Debye modes already observed for neat water. Analysis of the amplitudes reveals that Tris is hydrated by 7 H₂Os up to its solubility limit. However, the rather high effective solute dipole moment of ≈12 D suggests that H₂O dipoles in contact with Tris should reorient independently from it. Accordingly, an alternative description of the DR spectra with a superposition of 4 Debyerelaxations was attempted. In this model, the slowest mode at ∼4 GHz arises from solute reorientation and that at ∼8 GHz was assigned to dynamically retarded hydration water, whereas relaxations at ∼18 and ∼500 GHz are again those of (rather unperturbed) bulk water. Analysis of the solvent-related modes shows that Tris indeed slows down 7-8 H₂O molecules. However, the solute-solvent interaction strength is rather weak, excluding the rotation of an alleged Tris-(7-8) H₂O cluster as an entity. The now derived effective dipole moment of (6.3 ± 0.5) D for the bare Tris molecule allows speculations on its conformation. With the help of computational methods, we suggest that Tris dissolved in water most likely possesses an intramolecular H-bond between the nitrogen and hydrogen atoms of amino and hydroxyl groups, respectively. In addition, computational results indicate that the seven hydration H₂Os found by DR bind directly to the Tris OH groups.

Structural phase transition in a charge-transfer compound: tropylium hexafluoridoantimonate(V)–1,4-dimethylnaphthalene (1/1)

Molecular motion in crystals has attracted much attention for the development of stimuli-responsive materials. The most studied are molecules with few atoms or highly symmetrical molecules. To develop molecules with new motion characteristics, we synthesized a charge-transfer compound, namely, tropylium hexafluoridoantimonate(V)–1,4-dimethylnaphthalene (1/1), (C7H7)[SbF6]·C12H12, and studied its structural phase transition. In this compound, the tropylium cation and the 1,4-dimethylnaphthalene molecule have planar geometry, but the latter has low symmetry. They are stacked as a one-dimensional chain structure through π–π charge-transfer interactions. Weak intermolecular interactions and planar molecular geometry result in a large degree of freedom of in-plane motion. Upon heating, due to the in-plane rotation of the molecules, the compound undergoes an order–disorder structural phase transition (phase-transition temperature = 334 K). The space group of the room-temperature phase is P21/m and the space group of the high-temperature phase is P4/mmm. This phase transition is accompanied by significant dielectric anomalies. The current investigation shows that the structural features of the title compound can be used to construct functional materials with phase transitions, such as molecular ferroelectrics.

Study of the Phase Transitions in the Binary System NPG-TRIS for Thermal Energy Storage Applications

Neopentylglycol (NPG) and tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (TRIS) are promising phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage (TES) applications. These molecules undergo reversible solid-solid phase transitions that are characterized by high enthalpy changes. This work investigates the NPG-TRIS binary system as a way to extend the use of both compounds in TES, looking for mixtures that cover transition temperatures different from those of pure compounds. The phase diagram of NPG-TRIS system has been established by thermal analysis. It reveals the existence of two eutectoids and one peritectic invariants, whose main properties as PCMs (transition temperature, enthalpy of phase transition, specific heat and density) have been determined. Of all transitions, only the eutectoid at 392 K shows sufficiently high enthalpy of solid-solid phase transition (150-227 J/g) and transition temperature significantly different from that of the solid-state transitions of pure compounds (NPG: 313 K; TRIS: 407 K). Special attention has also been paid to the analysis of metastability issues that could limit the usability of NPG, TRIS and their mixtures as PCMs. It is proven that the addition of small amounts of expanded graphite microparticles contributes to reduce the subcooling phenomena that characterizes NPG and TRIS and solve the reversibility problems observed in NPG/TRIS mixtures.

Plastic Transition to Switch Nonlinear Optical Properties Showing the Record High Contrast in a Single-Component Molecular Crystal

To switch bulk nonlinear optical (NLO) effects represents an exciting new branch of NLO material science, whereas it remains a great challenge to achieve high contrast for "on/off" of quadratic NLO effects in crystalline materials. Here, we report the supereminent NLO-switching behaviors of a single-component plastic crystal, 2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-nitro-1,3-propanediol (1), which shows a record high contrast of at least ∼150, exceeding all the known crystalline switches. Such a breakthrough is clearly elucidated from the slowing down of highly isotropic molecular motions during plastic-to-rigid transition. The deep understanding of its intrinsic plasticity and superior NLO property allows the construction of a feasible switching mechanism. As a unique class of substances with short-range disorder embedded in long-range ordered crystalline lattice, plastic crystals enable response to external stimuli and fulfill specific photoelectric functions, which open a newly conceptual avenue for the designing of new functional materials.

Solid-Solid Phase Transition in Trimethylolpropane (TRMP)

An orientationally disordered crystalline (ODIC) plastic phase (γ) was observed in Trimethylolpropane (TRMP) during heating by high resolution thermal and X-ray diffraction analyses. TRMP is a potential thermal energy storage material. The enthalpies of solid-solid (α → γ at 327.8 K) and fusion (γ → liquid at 332.7 K) transitions are 16.36 kJ/mol and 0.9 kJ/mol, respectively. Supercooling was observed during solidification of melts, and this supercooled γ phase began to transform to a metastable crystalline phase, designated as α′, after 20 minutes at room temperature. The lattice parameters of the monoclinic α phase, obtained from this study, are: