The polymorphism of oxyresveratrol, a natural extract widely used in traditional Asian medicine, was investigated by means of the most recent structure characterization techniques. A previously unknown anhydrate oxyresveratrol crystal structure was identified for the first time from a submicrometric polyphasic mixture using 3D electron diffraction (3D ED). Additionally, a new polymorph of the dihydrate form of oxyresveratrol was also discovered and structurally studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrganic-inorganic Pb-free layered perovskites are efficient broadband emitters and thus are promising materials for lighting applications. However, their synthetic protocols require a controlled atmosphere, high temperature, and long preparation time. This hinders the potential tunability of their emission through organic cations, as is instead common practice in Pb-based structures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new one-dimensional hybrid iodoplumbate, namely, 4,4'-(anthracene-9,10-diylbis(ethyne-2,1-diyl))bis(1-methyl-1-pyridinium) lead iodide CHNPbI (AEPyPbI), is reported here for the first time with its complete characterization. The material exhibits remarkable thermal stability (up to 300 °C), and it is unreactive under ambient conditions toward water and atmospheric oxygen, due to the quaternary nature of the nitrogen atoms present in the organic cation. The cation exhibits strong visible fluorescence under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, and when its iodide is combined with PbI, it forms AEPyPbI, an efficient light-emitting material, with a photoluminescence emission intensity comparable to that of high-quality InP epilayers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe true molecular conformation and the crystal structure of benzo[e]dinaphtho[2,3-a;1',2',3',4'-ghi]fluoranthene, 7,14-diphenylnaphtho[1,2,3,4-cde]bisanthene and 7,16-diphenylnaphtho[1,2,3,4-cde]helianthrene were determined ab initio by 3D electron diffraction. All three molecules are remarkable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The molecular conformation of two of these compounds could not be determined via classical spectroscopic methods due to the large size of the molecule and the occurrence of multiple and reciprocally connected aromatic rings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol
September 2022
Nanomedicine is among the most fascinating areas of research. Most of the newly discovered pharmaceutical polymorphs, as well as many new synthesized or isolated natural products, appear only in form of nanocrystals. The development of techniques that allow investigating the atomic structure of nanocrystalline materials is therefore one of the most important frontiers of crystallography.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe structure solution of the δ-polymorph of indomethacin was obtained using three-dimensional electron diffraction. This form shows a significantly enhanced dissolution rate compared with the more common and better studied α- and γ-polymorphs, indicating better biopharmaceutical properties for medicinal applications. The structure was solved in non-centrosymmetric space group P2 and comprises two molecules in the asymmetric unit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerein we demonstrate the prowess of the 3D electron diffraction approach by unveiling the structure of terrylene, the third member in the series of peri-condensed naphthalene analogues, which has eluded structure determination for 65 years. The structure was determined by direct methods using electron diffraction data and corroborated by dispersion-inclusive density functional theory optimizations. Terrylene crystalizes in the monoclinic space group P2 /a, arranging in a sandwich-herringbone packing motif, similar to analogous compounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Crystallogr B Struct Sci Cryst Eng Mater
December 2020
A previously unknown cocrystal of olanzapine and phenol was identified from a volatile deep eutectic solvent as the intermediate species in the crystallization of olanzapine. This new nanocrystalline phase was investigated by electron diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. The structure was determined by simulated annealing using 3D electron diffraction data and confirmed using DFT-D optimizations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe crystallisation propensity of the newly synthesised molecule persulfurated coronene has been investigated through a number of experimental methods. Electrostatic potential calculations and multi-molecular optimisations show that face-face interactions are far more favorable than edge-face interactions, severely restricting the ability of the molecule to crystallise.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngew Chem Int Ed Engl
August 2019
Orthocetamol is a regioisomer of the well-known pain medication paracetamol and a promising analgesic and an anti-arthritic medicament itself. However, orthocetamol cannot be grown as single crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction, so its crystal structure has remained a mystery for more than a century. Here, we report the ab-initio structure determination of orthocetamol obtained by 3D electron diffraction, combining a low-dose acquisition method and a dedicated single-electron detector for recording the diffracted intensities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Crystallogr B Struct Sci Cryst Eng Mater
June 2015
The M2O-Al2O3-WO3 (M = alkaline metals) system has attracted the attention of the scientific community because some of its members showed potential applications as single crystalline media for tunable solid-state lasers. These materials behave as promising laser host materials due to their high and continuous transparency in the wide range of the near-IR region. A systematic investigation of these phases is nonetheless hampered because it is impossible to produce large crystals and only in a few cases a pure synthetic product can be achieved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF"This is a mineral about which there has been much discussion" is a typical statement about vaterite in older standard textbooks of inorganic chemistry. This polymorph of CaCO(3) was first mentioned by H. Vater in 1897, plays key roles in weathering and biomineralization processes, but occurs only in the form of nanosized crystals, unsuitable for structure determination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA hitherto unknown phase of sodium titanate, NaTi(3)O(6)(OH)·2H(2)O, was identified as the intermediate species in the synthesis of TiO(2) nanorods. This new phase, prepared as nanorods, was investigated by electron diffraction, X-ray powder diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The structure was determined ab initio using electron diffraction data collected by the recently developed automated diffraction tomography technique.
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