Visualizing a Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal [2+2] Photodimerization through its Lattice Dynamics: An Experimental and Theoretical Investigation.

In homogeneous solid-state reactions, the single-crystal nature of the starting material remains unchanged, and the system evolves seamlessly through a series of solid solutions of reactant and product. Among [2+2] photodimerizations of cinnamic acid derivatives in the solid state, those involving salts of the 4-aminocinnamic acid have been recognized to proceed homogeneously in a "single-crystal-to-single-crystal" fashion by X-ray diffraction techniques. Here the bromide salt of this compound class is taken as a model system in a Raman spectroscopy study at low wavelengths, to understand how such a mechanism defines the trend of the crystal lattice vibrations during the reaction. Vibrational mode calculations, based on dispersion corrected DFT simulations of the crystal lattices involved in the transformation, have assisted the interpretation of the experiments. Such an approach has allowed us to clarify the spectral signatures and to establish a correlation between the dynamics of the monomer and dimer systems in a process where chemical progress and crystal structural changes are demonstrated to occur simultaneously.

Electrochemical Approach for the Production of Layered Double Hydroxides with a Well-Defined Co/MeIII Ratio.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have been widely studied for their plethora of fascinating features and applications. The potentiostatic electrodeposition of LDHs has been extensively applied in the literature as a fast and direct method to substitute classical chemical routes. However, the electrochemical approach does not usually allow for a fine control of the MII /MIII ratio in the synthesized material. By employing a recently proposed potentiodynamic method, LDH films of controlled composition are herein prepared with good reproducibility, using different ratios of the trivalent (Fe or Al) to bivalent (Co) cations in the electrolytic solution. All the obtained materials are shown to be effective oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts, and are thoroughly characterized by a multi-technique approach, including FE-SEM, XRD, Raman, AES and a wide range of electrochemical procedures.

Substrate-Induced Phase of a Benzothiophene Derivative Detected by Mid-Infrared and Lattice Phonon Raman Spectroscopy.

The presence of a substrate-induced polymorph of 2,7-dioctyloxy[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene is probed in microscopic crystals and in thin films. Two experimental techniques are used: lattice phonon Raman and IR spectroscopy. The bulk crystal and substrate-induced phase have an entirely different molecular packing, and therefore, their Raman spectra are characteristic fingerprints of the respective polymorphs. These spectra can be unambiguously assigned to the individual polymorphs. Drop-cast and spin-coated thin films on solid substrates are investigated in the as-prepared state and after solvent-vapor annealing. Because Raman spectroscopy is less sensitive with decreasing film thickness, IR spectroscopy is shown to be a more feasible tool for phase detection. The surface-induced phase is mainly present in the as-prepared thin films, whereas the bulk phase is present after solvent-vapor annealing. This result suggests that the surface-induced phase is a metastable polymorph.

Interlayer Sliding Phonon Drives Phase Transition in the Ph-BTBT-10 Organic Semiconductor.

In the field of organic electronics, the semiconductor 7-decyl-2-phenyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (Ph-BTBT-10) has become a benchmark due to its high charge mobility and chemical stability in thin film devices. Its phase diagram is characterized by a crystal phase with a bilayer structure that at high temperature transforms into a Smectic E liquid crystal with monolayer structure. As the charge transport properties appear to depend on the phase present in the thin film, the transition has been the subject of structural and computational studies. Here such a process has been investigated by polarized low frequency Raman spectroscopy, selectively probing the intermolecular dynamics of the two phases. The spectroscopic observations demonstrate the key role played by a displacive component of the transition, with the interpenetration of the crystal bilayers driven by lattice phonon mode softening followed by the intralayer rearrangement of the molecule rigid cores into the herringbone motif of the liquid crystal. The mechanism can be related to the effectiveness of thermal annealing to restore the crystal phase in films.

Lattice Dynamics of Quinacridone Polymorphs: A Combined Raman and Computational Approach.

Polarized low-frequency Raman microscopy and a posteriori dispersion-corrected density functional simulations are combined to investigate the lattice vibrations of the αI, ß, and γ polymorphs of the model organic semiconductor quinacridone, which are known to display different optical and electronic properties. The comparison between experiments and calculations allows for unambiguous mode assignment and identification of the scattering crystal faces. Conversely, the agreement between simulations and experiments validates the adopted computational methods, which correctly describe the intermolecular interaction of the molecular material. The acquired knowledge of quinacridone lattice dynamics is used to describe the αI to ß thermal transition and, most consequentially, to reliably characterize the electron-lattice phonon coupling strength of the three polymorphs, obtaining hints about the electrical transport mechanism of the material.

Chiral "doped" MOFs: an electrochemical and theoretical integrated study.

This work reports on the electrochemical behaviour of Fe and Zn based metal-organic framework (MOF) compounds, which are "doped" with chiral molecules, namely: cysteine and camphor sulfonic acid. Their electrochemical behaviour was thoroughly investigated via "solid-state" electrochemical measurements, exploiting an "ad hoc" tailored experimental set-up: a paste obtained by carefully mixing the MOF with graphite powder is deposited on a glassy carbon (GC) surface. The latter serves as the working electrode (WE) in cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements. Infrared (IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and absorbance (UV-Vis) techniques are exploited for a further characterization of the MOFs' structural and electronic properties. The experimental results are then compared with DFT based quantum mechanical calculations. The electronic and structural properties of the MOFs synthesized in this study depend mainly on the type of metal center, and to a minor extent on the chemical nature of the dopant.

Polymorph screening at surfaces of a benzothienobenzothiophene derivative: discovering new solvate forms.

The discovery of new polymorphs opens up unique applications for molecular materials since their physical properties are predominantly influenced by the crystal structure type. The deposition of molecules at surfaces offers great potential in the variation of the crystallization conditions, thereby allowing access to unknown polymorphs. With our surface crystallization approach, four new phases are found for an oligoethylene glycol-benzothienobenzothiophene molecule, and none of these phases could be identified via classical polymorph screening. The corresponding crystal lattices of three of the new phases were obtained via X-ray diffraction (XRD). Based on the volumetric considerations together with X-ray fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy data, the phases are identified as solvates containing one, two or three solvent molecules per molecule. The strong interaction of dichloromethane with the oligoethylene glycol side chains of the molecules may be responsible for the formation of the solvates. Temperature-dependent XRD reveals the low thermal stability of the new phases, contrary to the thermodynamically stable bulk form. Nevertheless, the four solvates are stable under ambient conditions for at least two years. This work illustrates that defined crystallization at surfaces enables access to multiple solvates of a given material through precise and controlled variations in the crystallization kinetics.

Crystal-to-crystal photoinduced reaction of dinitroanthracene to anthraquinone.

The photochemical reaction of 9,10-dinitroanthracene (DNO(2)A) to anthraquinone (AQ) + 2NO has been studied by means of lattice phonon Raman spectroscopy in the spectral region 10-150 cm(-1). In fact, crystal-to-crystal transformations are best revealed by following changes in the lattice modes, as even small modifications in the crystal structure lead to dramatic changes in symmetry and selection rules of vibrational modes. While analysis of the lattice modes allowed for the study of the physical changes, the chemical transformation was monitored by measuring the intramolecular Raman-active modes of both reactant and product. On the basis of the experimental data it has been possible, at a microscopic level, to infer crucial information on the reaction mechanism by simultaneously detecting molecular (vibrational modes) and crystal structure (lattice phonons) modifications during the reaction. At a macroscopic level we have detected an intriguing relationship between incident photons and mechanical strain, which manifests itself as a striking bending and unfolding of the specimens under irradiation. To clarify the mechanisms underlying the relationship between incoming light and molecular environment, we have extended the study to high pressure up to 2 GPa. It has been found that above 1 GPa the photoreaction becomes inhibited. The solid-state transformation has also been theoretically modeled, thus identifying the reaction pathway along which the DNO(2)A crystal lattice deforms to finally become the crystal lattice of the AQ product.

Phonon dynamics and electron-phonon coupling in pristine picene.

The paper reports a complete analysis of the phonon structure of crystalline picene, a recently announced organic semiconductor. Both lattice and intramolecular vibrations are investigated. An exhaustive assignment of lattice phonons is obtained through polarized Raman spectra assisted by lattice dynamics calculations based on a well tested atom-atom potential model. Raman, infrared spectra and density functional (DFT) calculations are used for the characterization of intramolecular modes. Coupling between low-frequency molecular vibrations and lattice phonons is accounted for. Molecule-to-molecule transfer integrals, as well as the Peierls and Holstein (non-local and local) coupling constants, are evaluated through the semiempirical method INDO/S (Intermediate Neglect of Differential Overlap with Spectroscopic parametrization).

Interaction of charge carriers with lattice and molecular phonons in crystalline pentacene.

The computational protocol we have developed for the calculation of local (Holstein) and non-local (Peierls) carrier-phonon coupling in molecular organic semiconductors is applied to both the low temperature and high temperature bulk crystalline phases of pentacene. The electronic structure is calculated by the semimpirical INDO/S (Intermediate Neglect of Differential Overlap with Spectroscopic parametrization) method. In the phonon description, the rigid molecule approximation is removed, allowing mixing of low-frequency intra-molecular modes with inter-molecular (lattice) phonons. A clear distinction remains between the low-frequency phonons, which essentially modulate the transfer integral from a molecule to another (Peierls coupling), and the high-frequency intra-molecular phonons, which modulate the on-site energy (Holstein coupling). The results of calculation agree well with the values extracted from experiment. The comparison with similar calculations made for rubrene allows us to discuss the implications for the current models of mobility.

Towards crystal structure prediction of complex organic compounds--a report on the fifth blind test.

Following on from the success of the previous crystal structure prediction blind tests (CSP1999, CSP2001, CSP2004 and CSP2007), a fifth such collaborative project (CSP2010) was organized at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre. A range of methodologies was used by the participating groups in order to evaluate the ability of the current computational methods to predict the crystal structures of the six organic molecules chosen as targets for this blind test. The first four targets, two rigid molecules, one semi-flexible molecule and a 1:1 salt, matched the criteria for the targets from CSP2007, while the last two targets belonged to two new challenging categories - a larger, much more flexible molecule and a hydrate with more than one polymorph. Each group submitted three predictions for each target it attempted. There was at least one successful prediction for each target, and two groups were able to successfully predict the structure of the large flexible molecule as their first place submission. The results show that while not as many groups successfully predicted the structures of the three smallest molecules as in CSP2007, there is now evidence that methodologies such as dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) are able to reliably do so. The results also highlight the many challenges posed by more complex systems and show that there are still issues to be overcome.

Molecular dynamics simulations for a pentacene monolayer on amorphous silica.

Molecular dynamics simulations are presented for "bulklike" and "filmlike" monolayers of pentacene deposited on a slab of amorphous silica. The two simulated systems, which mainly differ in the tilt angle between the pentacene molecules and the silica surface, exhibit structural and energetic properties that match the available measurements. The bulklike monolayer, the structure of which corresponds to that of the low-temperature polymorph of crystalline pentacene, is stable. The filmlike monolayer, in which the molecules are most closely normal to the surface, is instead thermodynamically metastable, in agreement with the experimental evidence.

Polymorphism and phonon dynamics of alpha-quaterthiophene.

Low-frequency (10-150 cm(-1)) Raman spectra of the low-temperature (LT) and high-temperature (HT) polymorphs of the organic semiconductor alpha-quaterthiophene at 300 and 10 K are reported. Polarized spectra, assisted by quasi-harmonic lattice dynamics (QHLD) calculations, allow characterization of the lattice phonon dynamics and identification of the two phases spectroscopically. The experimental data can be explained by taking into account the coupling between intermolecular (lattice) and low-frequency intramolecular modes. Finally, Raman mapping is used to investigate the phase purity.

Influence of intermolecular vibrations on the electronic coupling in organic semiconductors: the case of anthracene and perfluoropentacene.

We have performed classical molecular dynamics simulations and quantum-chemical calculations on molecular crystals of anthracene and perfluoropentacene. Our goal is to characterize the amplitudes of the room-temperature molecular displacements and the corresponding thermal fluctuations in electronic transfer integrals, which constitute a key parameter for charge transport in organic semiconductors. Our calculations show that the thermal fluctuations lead to Gaussian-like distributions of the transfer integrals centered around the values obtained for the equilibrium crystal geometry. The calculated distributions have been plugged into Monte-Carlo simulations of hopping transport, which show that lattice vibrations impact charge transport properties to various degrees depending on the actual crystal structure.

Significant progress in predicting the crystal structures of small organic molecules--a report on the fourth blind test.

We report on the organization and outcome of the fourth blind test of crystal structure prediction, an international collaborative project organized to evaluate the present state in computational methods of predicting the crystal structures of small organic molecules. There were 14 research groups which took part, using a variety of methods to generate and rank the most likely crystal structures for four target systems: three single-component crystal structures and a 1:1 cocrystal. Participants were challenged to predict the crystal structures of the four systems, given only their molecular diagrams, while the recently determined but as-yet unpublished crystal structures were withheld by an independent referee. Three predictions were allowed for each system. The results demonstrate a dramatic improvement in rates of success over previous blind tests; in total, there were 13 successful predictions and, for each of the four targets, at least two groups correctly predicted the observed crystal structure. The successes include one participating group who correctly predicted all four crystal structures as their first ranked choice, albeit at a considerable computational expense. The results reflect important improvements in modelling methods and suggest that, at least for the small and fairly rigid types of molecules included in this blind test, such calculations can be constructively applied to help understand crystallization and polymorphism of organic molecules.

Surface Induced Phenytoin Polymorph. 2. Structure Validation by Comparing Experimental and Density Functional Theory Raman Spectra.

A method for structure solution in thin films that combines grazing incidence X-ray diffraction data analysis and crystal structure prediction was presented in a recent work (Braun et al. Cryst. Growth Des.2019, DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.9b00857). Applied to phenytoin form II, which is only detected in films, the approach gave a very reasonable, but not fully confirmed, candidate structure with Z = 4 and Z' = 2. In the present work, we demonstrate how, by calculating and measuring the crystal Raman spectrum in the low wavenumber energy region with the aim of validating the candidate structure, this can be further refined. In fact, we find it to correspond to a saddle point of the energy landscape of the system, from which a minimum of lower symmetry may be reached. With the new structure, with Z = 4 and Z' = 2, we finally obtain an excellent agreement between experimental and calculated Raman spectra.

Surface Induced Phenytoin Polymorph. 1. Full Structure Solution by Combining Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction and Crystal Structure Prediction.

Understanding the behavior and properties of molecules assembled in thin layers requires knowledge of their crystalline packing. The drug phenytoin (5,5-diphenylhydantoin) is one of the compounds that can be grown as a surface induced polymorph. By using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, the monoclinic unit cell of the new form II can be determined, but, due to crystal size and the low amount of data, a full solution using conventional structure solving strategies fails. In this work, the full solution has been obtained by combining computational structure generation and experimental results. The comparison between the bulk and the new surface induced phase reveals significant packing differences of the hydrogen-bonding network, which might be the reason for the faster dissolution of form II with respect to form I. The results are very satisfactory, and the method might be adapted for other systems, where, due to the limited amount of experimental data, one must rely on additional approaches to gain access to more detailed information to understand the solid-state behavior.

Do computed crystal structures of nonpolar molecules depend on the electrostatic interactions? The case of tetracene.

We present a strategy for comparing the global properties of competing potential models. By systematically sampling the potential energy surface of crystalline tetracene, we assess how the number, energy and structure of its minima are modified by switching on (or off) the Coulombic interactions. The increased complexity of the Coulombic potential leads to a more "rugged" potential energy surface with a larger number of minima, but the effect is not large. In fact, we find a subset of minima stable only in presence of the Coulombic interactions, a smaller subset stable only in their absence, and a large majority stable in both cases. Among these, there is a very good, but not perfect, correlation between the energies and the structures computed with and without the electrostatic interactions. Although electrostatic interactions play a role even in a rigid nonpolar molecule such as tetracene, they are not as crucial as often believed, because altering the electrostatic model (or switching it off completely) leads, in most cases, to equivalent results.

Are crystal polymorphs predictable? The case of sexithiophene.

Using sexithiophene as a benchmark compound, we present a very effective strategy for searching the potential energy minima of a crystalline material, described in terms of rigid molecules with Coulombic and atom-atom interactions. The strategy involves uniform sampling of the many-body energy hypersurface, mechanical identification of all constraints deriving from the crystallographic symmetry, and a "sight-resight" method, originally introduced in wildlife ecology, for assessing the completeness of the search. Thousands of distinct potential energy minima, with a surprising variety of structural arrangements, are identified for sexithiophene. Despite the large number of competing minima, the system presents a small number of deep minima, with very different structures and not particularly congested in energy or density. The two deepest minima correspond to the structures of the two known experimental polymorphs, which are satisfactorily described.

Bulk and Surface-Stabilized Structures of Paracetamol Revisited by Raman Confocal Microscopy.

We revisit the polymorphism of paracetamol by means of a micro-Raman technique, which has proved to be a powerful tool for structure recognition. Distinct lattice phonon spectra clearly identified the pure phases. Confocality enabled us to detect phase mixing between form II and either I or III on a micrometric scale in the same crystallite. Following the most recent findings on surface-mediated structures, we also investigated spin-coated films grown on glass, gold, and polystyrene substrates, confirming the selectivity of these surfaces for the metastable form III, which shows an unprecedented stability over a time span of several months. A mechanism of its transformation to phase II, via a partially ordered intermediate state, is suggested by polarized Raman measurements.