Structure and nanostructure in ionic liquids.

The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) was established in 1965 to record numerical, chemical and bibliographic data relating to published organic and metal–organic crystal structures. The Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) now stores data for nearly 700 000 structures and is a comprehensive and fully retrospective historical archive of small-molecule crystallography. Nearly 40 000 new structures are added each year. As X-ray crystallography celebrates its centenary as a subject, and the CCDC approaches its own 50th year, this article traces the origins of the CCDC as a publicly funded organization and its onward development into a self-financing charitable institution. Principally, however, we describe the growth of the CSD and its extensive associated software system, and summarize its impact and value as a basis for research in structural chemistry, materials science and the life sciences, including drug discovery and drug development. Finally, the article considers the CCDC’s funding model in relation to open access and open data paradigms.

/pdf/the-cambridge-structural-database-in-retrospect-and-prospect-4nbzw83405.pdf

The Cambridge Structural Database in retrospect and prospect.

http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/c4/c4cc09074h/c4cc09074h1.pdf

Energy frameworks: insights into interaction anisotropy and the mechanical properties of molecular crystals

The Green ChemisTREE: 20 years after taking root with the 12 principles

Currently, organic crystal structure prediction (CSP) methods are based on searching for the most thermodynamically stable crystal structure, making various approximations in evaluating the crystal energy. The most stable (global minimum) structure provides a prediction of an experimental crystal structure. However, depending on the specific molecule, there may be other structures which are very close in energy. In this case, the other structures on the crystal energy landscape may be polymorphs, components of static or dynamic disorder in observed structures, or there may be no route to nucleating and growing these structures. A major reason for performing CSP studies is as a complement to solid form screening to see which alternative packings to the known polymorphs are thermodynamically feasible.

/pdf/predicting-crystal-structures-of-organic-compounds-3c0wtdqp9x.pdf

Predicting crystal structures of organic compounds

How do molecules aggregate in solution, and how do these aggregates consolidate themselves in crystals? What is the relationship between the structure of a molecule and the structure of the crystal it forms? Why do some molecules adopt more than one crystal structure? Why do some crystal structures contain solvent? How does one design a crystal structure with a specified topology of molecules, or a specified coordination of molecules and/or ions, or with a specified property? What are the relationships between crystal structures and properties for molecular crystals? These are some of the questions that are being addressed today by the crystal engineering community, a group that draws from the larger communities of organic, inorganic, and physical chemists, crystallographers, and solid state scientists. This Perspective provides a brief historical introduction to crystal engineering itself and an assessment of the importance and utility of the supramolecular synthon, which is one of the most important concepts in the practical use and implementation of crystal design. It also provides a look to the future from the viewpoint of the author, and indicates some directions in which this field might be moving.

Gautain R Desiraju

Papers

Crystal engineering: from molecule to crystal.