Crystal Effects Influencing the Course of Organic Solid State Reactions: Perfect, Imperfect and Surface Effects

Abstract

Chemical reactivity in the solid state is an important topic with regards to the exploitation of organic solids. The relatively immobile nature of the molecules in a crystal can lead to highly selective conversions and be exploited in the area of chemical synthesis. It can also, using crystal engineering methods, be used to provide chemical stability, isolating potentially reactive molecules in an environment where conformational and configurational changes required for conversion become impossible. While such effects will be present in both amorphous and crystalline materials this chapter reviews the implications for crystalline solids. It considers the role of the perfect lattice (as revealed by conventional single crystal diffraction methods) as well as the nature and implications of defects (planar, linear and point as well as the terminating faces of a crystal) as possible nucleation sites for transformations to occur.