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Molecular Shape as a Design Criterion

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Implications of Molecular and Materials Structure for New Technologies

Part of the book series: NATO Science Series ((NSSE,volume 360))

Abstract

Many applications of crystalline materials depend not just on the underlying molecular structures, but equally on the alignment of molecules in the crystals. An understanding of molecular arrangements is critical to the design of materials with specific bulk properties. Crystal structure reports have traditionally contained little significant discussion (frequently no mention at all) of molecular arrangements in the crystal, presumably because the motivation for many studies was the elucidation of some molecular feature. The Cambridge Structural Database [1] makes available crystal data for many thousands of organic and organometallic crystal structures, together with continually evolving retrieval and analysis software. The commitment at the Data Centre to the development of increasingly powerful software for 3-dimensional search, analysis, and display is changing the landscape of the study of crystal packing. This superb set of tools facilitates many important and innovative programs of study that are slowly but surely increasing our understanding of molecular solid state structure. This systematic study is, in turn, fueling significant progress in crystal engineering, one of the major themes of this School. Useful reviews in this area include those by Desiraju [2] and by Braga and Grepioni [3] (both of these surveying a broad range of intermolecular interactions) and those by Aakeröy [4, 5] and Zaworotko [6] (focusing more specifically on the exploitation of hydrogen-bonding as a design tool).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712-1167, USA

    Raymond E. Davis & James K. Whitesell

  2. Department of Chemistry, Delaware State University, Dover, DE, 19901, USA

    Kraig A. Wheeler

Authors
  1. Raymond E. Davis
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  2. James K. Whitesell
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  3. Kraig A. Wheeler
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK

    Judith A. K. Howard

  2. Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, 12 Union Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EZ, UK

    Frank H. Allen  & Gregory P. Shields  & 

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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Davis, R.E., Whitesell, J.K., Wheeler, K.A. (1999). Molecular Shape as a Design Criterion. In: Howard, J.A.K., Allen, F.H., Shields, G.P. (eds) Implications of Molecular and Materials Structure for New Technologies. NATO Science Series, vol 360. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4653-1_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4653-1_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-5817-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4653-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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