Crystal engineering: From design of crystal structures to fabrication of composite crystals.

摘要

This thesis reports how to design and control co-crystal structures from a kinetic point of view, and demonstrates the control of crystal morphology through understanding the kinetics and crystal structures. In chapter one, the in-situ atomic force microscope (AFM) was utilized to investigate how side chain on a glycine 2,5-diketopiperazine (GLYDKP) backbone can affect the assembly of GLYDKP, and showed that methyl groups cause larger energy barrier for crystallization. Because the introduction of functional group on the side chain could inevitably slow down the assembly process, a different approach should be considered. Chapter two shows that formic acid at low concentration can accelerate the assembly process without incorporating into the crystal structure. Because formic acid only crystallizes with GLYDKP in concentrated solution, these results prove that co-crystallization is a better method for incorporating functionalized molecules into a solid than direct modification of molecule itself.; Chapter three focuses on the rational design of GLYDKP cocrystals by utilizing the observation found in chapter two. Structure of GLYDKP and formic acid crystal was analyzed to search possible guest molecules for cocrystal studies. This method successfully identified eleven molecules that crystallize with GLYDKP, and proved that crystal structure can be controlled through weak interactions such as C-H•••O=C and C-H•••Cl interactions.; Chapter four and chapter five explore the possibility of using self-assembled process to control morphology of crystals and surface epitaxy. Metal(II) bis(imidazolium 2,b-pyridinedicarboxylate) complexes were chosen and two morphologies associated with different metal ions were found: rhombohedral (Type I) and rectangular (Type II) crystals. In this study, an additive was found to change the morphology of crystal from type I to type II, and then methods of producing various shapes of composite crystals were also established. These self-assembled procedures of making composite crystals at micron scale are very promising, because the fabrication will only relies on solvent, additives, or combination of them without using sophisticated crystallizers.