Mechanical mixing of molecular crystals

Supramolecular reactions between crystalline materials can be exploited to prepare both hydrogen bonded co-crystals and coordination networks. Mechanical mixing of molecular crystals as well as kneading provide an alternative, solvent-free, route to novel materials hence these methods represent a green route to supramolecular solid-state chemistry.     

Supramolecular click procedures in liquid crystals

ABSTRACT

Click reactions have been introduced as highly reliable chemical processes, in which even complex molecular building blocks can be connected irreversibly by covalent bonds. Although reversible processes like supramolecular aggregation controlled by specific interactions like hydrogen bonding or metal complexation are also highly reliable and omnipresent in nature, they are rarely considered as click reactions. Mechanical processes in daily life associated with a click procedure depending only on shape recognition and space-filling are snap fasteners, snap fit buckels and ball detents and they are almost unknown in the nanoworld. This account defines such processes on a molecular basis and highlights some recent examples of star-shaped, shape-persistent mesogens designed to control the nanostructure of columnar liquid crystals for future photovoltaic applications. The click procedure leading to these structures is compared to related systems like the CPI and the LC shuttlecock.     

Effect of emulsification processes on the stability of Pickering emulsions stabilized by organomontmorillonites

In this paper, effect of emulsification processes on the properties of Pickering emulsions stabilized by organomontmorillonites (OMts) was studied. Results of micro-morphology and X-ray diffraction showed that the structure of OMt in emulsion depended on the emulsification processes and had an effect on the stability of emulsion. We propose a schematic diagram to reveal the relationship between emulsification processes-OMt laminates structure-stability of Pickering emulsion. In emulsion prepared by ultrasonic, OMt showed uniform dispersion, loose structure, and irregular crystalline. In emulsion prepared by vortex mixing method, OMt illustrated stacking and coagulation structure. In emulsion prepared by microwave method, OMt showed interacting structure and had a little interaction with oil/water interface, and thus the properties of emulsion prepared by microwave was weakly related to oil/water ratios. Emulsification processes had a profound effect on the structure of OMt and stability of Pickering emulsion, which can be used as a trigger to prepare emulsion for various applications.     

Toward well-organised ionic discotic liquid crystals via versatile supramolecular approach

Various ordered structures of crystalline three-dimensional (3D) cubic, 2D columnar or 1D lamellar mesophases have been facilely achieved through host–guest interactions of electrically neutral host tris(18-crown-6)triphenylene and guest potassium sulfonates with alkyl tails of variant number and length. The convenient construction of functionalised ionic complexes and the flexibility of such a supramolecular approach offer a wide variety of possibilities to prepare various ordered functional soft materials, especially those in their 2D ordered columnar liquid crystalline mesophases may serve as promising electron and ion dual-channel transport organic electronic materials.     

Rh-catalyzed alkene oxidation: a highly efficient and selective process for preparing N-alkoxysulfonyl aziridines

Unique alkoxysulfonyl aziridine heterocycles were prepared through selective intra- and intermolecular alkene oxidation reactions. These methods are general and perform efficiently at low Rh-catalyst loadings (1-2 mol %) with only a slight excess of an inexpensive commercial oxidant, PhI(OAc)₂. For intermolecular processes, trichloroethylsulfamate was identified as a novel and markedly effective N-atom source, allowing reactions to be conducted with limiting amounts of the olefin substrate. The aziridine products submit to facile, nucleophilic ring opening; these processes are regioselective and can be used to prepare polyfunctionalized amines, including α-aminoketones via the direct addition of Me₂SO.     

Supramolecular hydrogen-bonded liquid crystals

The role of hydrogen-bonding interactions in the formation and/or stabilization of liquid crystalline phases has been recognized in recent years and significant work has been conducted. Following the first and well-established examples of liquid crystal formation through the dimerization of aromatic carboxylic acids, several classes of compounds have been prepared by the interaction of complementary molecules, the liquid crystalline behaviour of which is crucially dependent on the structure of the resulting supramolecular systems. In this review the main classes of liquid crystals prepared through hydrogen-bonding interactions are presented, with the aim of establishing, in the first place, the diversity of organic compounds that can be used as building elements in the process of liquid crystal formation. Rigid-rod anisotropic or amphiphilic-type molecules, appropriately functionalized with recognizable moieties, interact in the melt or in solution and lead to the formation of supramolecular complexes that may exhibit thermotropic liquid crystalline character. Depending on the nature, number and position of the groups able to form hydrogen bonds, a diversity of supramolecular structures, both dimeric and polymeric, have been obtained, affording in turn various liquid crystalline phases. The structure and stability of these hydrogen-bonded supramolecular complexes and their relation to the observed liquid crystalline phases are the main topics of this review.     

Supramolecular hydrogen-bonded liquid crystals

The role of hydrogen-bonding interactions in the formation and/or stabilization of liquid crystalline phases has been recognized in recent years and significant work has been conducted. Following the first and well-established examples of liquid crystal formation through the dimerization of aromatic carboxylic acids, several classes of compounds have been prepared by the interaction of complementary molecules, the liquid crystalline behaviour of which is crucially dependent on the structure of the resulting supramolecular systems. In this review the main classes of liquid crystals prepared through hydrogen-bonding interactions are presented, with the aim of establishing, in the first place, the diversity of organic compounds that can be used as building elements in the process of liquid crystal formation. Rigid-rod anisotropic or amphiphilic-type molecules, appropriately functionalized with recognizable moieties, interact in the melt or in solution and lead to the formation of supramolecular complexes that may exhibit thermotropic liquid crystalline character. Depending on the nature, number and position of the groups able to form hydrogen bonds, a diversity of supramolecular structures, both dimeric and polymeric, have been obtained, affording in turn various liquid crystalline phases. The structure and stability of these hydrogen-bonded supramolecular complexes and their relation to the observed liquid crystalline phases are the main topics of this review.     

An enthalpy landscape view of homogeneous melting in crystals

A detailed analysis of homogeneous melting in crystalline materials modeled by empirical interatomic potentials is presented using the theory of inherent structures. We show that the homogeneous melting of a perfect, infinite crystalline material can be inferred directly from the growth exponent of the inherent structure density-of-states distribution expressed as a function of formation enthalpy. Interestingly, this growth is already established by the presence of very few homogeneously nucleated point defects in the form of Frenkel pairs. This finding supports the notion that homogeneous melting is appropriately defined in terms of a one-phase theory and does not require detailed consideration of the liquid phase. We then apply this framework to the study of applied hydrostatic compression on homogeneous melting and show that the inherent structure analysis used here is able to capture the correct pressure-dependence for two crystalline materials, namely silicon and aluminum. The coupling between the melting temperature and applied pressure arises through the distribution of formation volumes for the various inherent structures.     

Microemulsions as microreactors for food applications

Major recent advances. Structured self-assembled liquids have been considered as efficient microreactors for organic and enzymatic reactions. Only recently scientists learned to use food-grade cosolvents and coemulsifiers together with hydrophilic non-ionic surfactants and to construct U-type phase diagrams with large isotropic regions ranging continuously from the oil-rich corner to the water-rich corner without any phase separation. The U-type microemulsions facilitate triggering and control of certain reactions by changing water activities. Maillard thermal degradation between sugars and amino acids is the main, and almost the only, chemical reaction that has been studied in food-grade microemulsions. Some examples of recent studies include: Maillard processes in binary structured fluids composed of monoglycerides of fatty acids and water forming microemulsions and lyotropic liquid crystalline structures; pseudoternary and pseudoquaternary W/O microemulsions; U-type microemulsions (W/O, O/W and bicontinuous microemulsions); enzymatic reactions aimed to prepare other surfactants such as sugar esters, monoglycerides and lysolecithins or triglycerides. Reactions in microreactors lead to unique new products. The reaction products and rates are controlled by the hydrophilicity/lipophilicity of the reagents (guest molecules), their molar ratios, type of oil phase, nature of surfactants and oil/surfactant ratios, nature of curvature and its elasticity (adjusted by cosolvent and coemulsifier) and by the water activity. The field is in its infancy and will need work of many more model reactions before it will be used in industrial food applications. Enzymatic reactions in non-food microemulsions are common practice but only few examples of food microemulsions as enzymatic microreactors have been extensively studied.     

Catalysis in Single Crystalline Materials: From Discrete Molecules to Metal-Organic Frameworks

Catalysis is one of the key techniques for people's modern life. It has created numerous essential chemicals such as biomedicines, agricultural chemicals and unique materials. Heterogeneous catalysis is the new emerging method with reusable catalysts. Among heterogenous catalysis patterns developed so far, single crystalline catalysis has become the promising one owing to its high catalytic density and selectivity resulted by the inherent porosity, orderliness of the lattices and permeability. These crystalline catalysts could be used in various reactions such as photo-dimerization, Diels-Alder reaction, CO₂ transformation and so on. In this review, we highlighted the reported works about the single crystalline catalysts. Both discrete small molecules and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been used to prepare single crystals for catalysis. For discrete molecules based crystalline catalysts, coordinated and covalent molecules have been used. There were more catalytic modes in crystalline MOF catalysts. Three patterns were identified in this review: single crystalline MOFs i) without catalytic sites, ii) with inherent catalytic features and iii) with introducing catalytic units by post synthetic modification. Based on these examples, this review committed to provide the inspirations for the further design and application of single crystalline materials.     

A contribution to non-equilibrium chemical kinetics. II. Strongly non-equilibrium “hot” reactions in liquids and solids

The method proposed in part I for non-equilibrium chemical kinetics is applied to processes provoked by non-equilibrium assemblies of energetic particles in liquids and solids. The movement of such an energetic particle belonging to a certain energy group is considered as a stochastic process when the direction of the velocity is changed stochastically at each step. On the ground of this consideration a simplified model of such a process is introduced: the stochastic movement of a particle is replaced by the deterministic movement of the corresponding quasi-particle having parameters determined through corresponding averages of the stochastic process. By use of this model, group constants of kinetic equations of our abovementioned work were expressed through parameters of microscopic processes in solids and liquids, and systems of non-equilibrium chemical kinetics' equations were written for different case. The proposed approach also permits us to consider the non-equilibrium of the crystalline lattice created by energetic particles. “Hot spot” reactions were considered as an example and a method to distinguish between direct and “hot spot” reactions was indicated. The proposed approach and obtained kinetic equations can be applied to recoil atoms (ions), fission products, hot particles produced in radiation chemistry, photochemistry, by laser beams, flash-photolysis etc. The destruction of the crystalline lattice by laser beams can also be considered by use of these equations.     

Three-dimensional colloidal crystals with a well-defined architecture

Monodisperse silica spheres with diameters of 220-1100 nm were prepared by hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in an alcoholic medium in the presence of water and ammonia. By grafting vinyl or amino groups onto silica surfaces using the coupling agents allyltrimethoxysilane and aminopropyltriethoxysilane, respectively, amphiphilic silica spheres were obtained and could be organized to form a stable Langmuir film at the air-water interface. The controlled transfer of this monolayer of particles onto a solid substrate gave us the ability to build three-dimensional regular crystals with a well-defined thickness and organization. These colloidal crystals diffract light in the UV, the visible, and the near-infrared (NIR) spectral regions, depending on the size of the silica spheres and according to Bragg's law. The depth of the photonic stop band can be tuned by varying the number of deposited layers of particles. By using successive depositions, we could prepare multilayered films with silica spheres of different sizes. The thickness of each slab in the binary crystals can be tuned at the layer level, while the crystalline order of each layer is well preserved.     

Liquid crystals for holographic optical data storage

A tutorial review is presented to inform and inspire the reader to develop and integrate strong scientific links between liquid crystals and holographic data storage, from a materials scientist's viewpoint. The principle of holographic data storage as a means of providing a solution to the information storage demands of the 21st century is detailed. Holography is a small subset of the much larger field of optical data storage and similarly, the diversity of materials used for optical data storage is enormous. The theory of polarisation holography which produces holograms of constant intensity, is discussed. Polymeric liquid crystals play an important role in the development of materials for holographic storage and photoresponsive materials based on azobenzene are targeted for discussion due to their ease of photo-reversion between trans- and cis-states. Although the final polymer may not be liquid crystalline, irradiation can induce ordered domains. The mesogens act in a co-operative manner, enhancing refractive indices and birefringences. Surface relief gratings are discussed as a consequence of holographic storage. Cholesteric polymers comprising azobenzene are briefly highlighted. Irradiation causing cis-trans-isomerisation can be used to control helix pitch. A brief mention of liquid crystals is also made since these materials may be of future interest since they are optically transparent and amenable to photo-induced anisotropy.     

A general set of order parameters for molecular crystals

Crystallization is fundamental to many aspects of physics and chemistry in addition to being of technological relevance, for example, in the chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries. However, the design of crystalline materials and crystallization processes is often challenging due to the many variables that can influence the process. As a part of an effort to gain a molecular-level understanding of the way molecules aggregate and organize themselves into crystal structures, in this work we present a new method to construct order parameters suitable for the study of crystallization and polymorph transformations in molecular systems. Our order parameters can be systematically defined for complex systems using information that can be obtained from simple molecular dynamics simulations of the crystals. We show how to construct the order parameters for the study of three different systems: the formation of α-glycine crystals in solution, the crystallization of benzene from the melt, and the polymorph transformation of terephthalic acid. Finally, we suggest how these order parameters could be used to study order-disorder transitions in molecular systems.     

氧化锰晶体作为催化材料调控氨氧化反应产物选择性

有机腈类化合物作为一类重要的化工原料,被广泛应用于医药/农药制造、精细化学品合成和高性能纤维/橡胶生产中.传统合成有机腈类化合物一般使用剧毒的氰化物作为腈化试剂,这类氰化物在危害人体健康的同时,也会严重污染生态环境.针对无氰化物的腈化过程,发展了很多新的反应路线,其中,采用氨气作为氮源的直接氨氧化引起了广泛关注.在该反应中,高温气固相氨氧化反应容易发生过氧化等副反应.与之相比,液相体系中的氨氧化过程反应条件则相对温和,可以有效抑制过氧化.但是,在液相反应中,腈类产物很容易被水合成酰胺类化合物,从而导致该反应的产物选择性大幅降低.本文研究发现,通过改变氧化锰晶体结构可以有效地调控醇类分子氨氧化反应中腈和酰胺产物的选择性.MnO2(包括α,β,γ和δ相)催化的氨氧化过程中,主要得到了酰胺(选择性>99.0％),而在相同反应条件下,α-Mn2O3却可以高选择性地催化醇氨氧化到腈类产物(选择性>99.0％),在该体系中,即使额外增加反应体系中水和催化剂的用量,腈类产物依然不会转化为酰胺产物.动力学研究结果表明,α-Mn2O3催化腈水合到酰胺的反应速率几乎为零,这说明该类催化剂可以有效抑制腈水合反应.原位红外光谱结果表明,α-Mn2O3表面无法有效活化水分子,并且对腈类分子的吸附较弱,这些因素都导致了腈水合反应难以进行,从而可以高选择性地形成腈类化合物.与之相反,MnO2催化材料则可以高效地活化水分子,并且对腈类分子吸附较强,从而有效促进了水合反应并获得了酰胺产物.综上,通过调控氧化锰的晶体类型就可以简单、有效地改变氨氧化反应中的产物选择性.即使在苛刻的反应条件下,例如较大量的水存在下,α-Mn2O3催化的反应体系中依然可以高选择性地获得腈类化合物.本文为高效调控氨氧化反应的产物选择性提供了一个可靠方案.     

Radiation-induced reactions via the lowest excited states in cinnamic acid crystals

Radiation-induced reactions of cinnamic acid derivatives have been examined and compared with photoreactions in the crystalline state; all the reaction products were exactly the same as those of the photoreactions, indicating that the reactions proceed only via the lowest excited state to give [2 + 2] cycloadducts, E/Z isomerization products, or starting molecules.     

Crystallization of isotactic poly(methylmethacrylate) in monolayers and thin films

Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of isotactic PMMA exhibit a pressure-induced transition upon compression, that can be described in terms of a two-dimensional crystallization process, analogous to a normal melt crystallization. These water surface crystallized monolayers can be used to prepare highly crystalline thin films of isotactic PMMA with tailor-made orientational characteristics.     

Polar organic compounds with derivatized crystalline zirconium phosphates

Layered organic derivatives of crystalline zirconium phosphate were synthesized and investigated for their intercalation behaviours. Derivatized zirconium phosphates having hydroxy groups take up different polar molecules such as alcohols, amines etc. by increasing the interlayer distance determined by X-ray diffraction method. The intercalation processes on these materials can be considered as heterogenous phase acid-base reactions.     

Polymers in lyotropic liquid crystals

Polymers can be incorporated into lamellar liquid crystalline systems without the phenomena of macroscopic phase separation occurring. By playing with the inter-membrane interactions and the polymer–bilayer interactions the properties of the lamellar system can be modified significantly. This is not only of interest as a fundamental prerequisite to life, but it also opens new fields of application.     

Novel monofunctionalized electron-deficient anthraquinone-based discotic liquid crystals

A series of electron-deficient 1-hydroxy-2,3,5,6,7-pentaalkoxyanthra-9,10-quinones has been synthesized. All nine members of the series were found to be liquid crystalline, forming columnar mesophases over a broad temperature range. Such supramolecular building blocks can be used for the preparation of novel discotic dimers, oligomers, polymers and metallomesogens.