Crystal engineering: A brief overview

Desiraju, Gautam R (2010) Crystal engineering: A brief overview. In: Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences - Chemical Sciences, 122 (5, Sp.). pp. 667-675.

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Abstract

Crystal structures of organic and metal-organic compounds have been determined in enormous numbers over the past century, and at the time of writing this review, the Cambridge Structural Database has just crossed the half million mark. The possibility of designing a particular crystal packing is, however, of more recent origin and the subject of crystal engineering has addressed this possibility, more or less systematically, during the past 30 years. Crystal engineering demands a detailed and thorough knowledge of intermolecular interactions, which act as the supramolecular glue that binds molecules into crystals. It also requires systematic strategies for the design of a crystal, the architectural blueprint as it were. Finally, this enterprise needs to be geared towards a useful property in that the crystal that is being designed is a functional one. All these features of the subject are directly or indirectly connected with the fact that there is a very large database of known crystal structures that is available to the crystal engineer. This review attempts to briefly survey the current scenario in this expanding subject.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences - Chemical Sciences
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Keywords:	Crystallography; crystal structure; hydrogen bond; polymorphism; pharmaceuticals
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	11 Nov 2010 10:30
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2010 10:30
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/33549

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