ROY Reclaims Its Crown: New Ways To Increase Polymorphic Diversity

Area of Science:

• Crystallography
• Materials Science
• Solid-State Chemistry

Background:

• Polymorphism, the existence of multiple crystalline forms for a single compound, significantly impacts material properties.
• Discovering diverse polymorphs is crucial for selecting optimal crystalline solids in various scientific and industrial applications.
• Current methods for polymorph screening can be exhaustive and may not always yield the widest range of crystalline structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce novel strategies for polymorph discovery and enhance polymorphic diversity.
• To demonstrate a new approach for inducing crystallization through specifically designed mixed-crystal seeds.
• To validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods using the benchmark compound ROY.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel crystallization technique utilizing mixed-crystal seeds to induce the formation of new polymorphs.
• Application of the mixed-crystal seeding strategy to the well-known compound ROY.
• Structural characterization of the newly obtained polymorphs using X-ray diffraction analysis.

Main Results:

• Successful synthesis and structural characterization of new polymorphs of the ROY compound.
• Demonstration that mixed-crystal seeding can significantly increase polymorphic diversity.
• ROY has been confirmed as the most polymorphic compound in the Cambridge Structural Database.

Conclusions:

• The developed mixed-crystal seeding strategy offers a powerful new tool for polymorph screening.
• These methods are broadly applicable to any field utilizing crystalline solids, promising to accelerate materials discovery.
• The findings expand the known polymorphic landscape of the ROY compound and establish a new benchmark for polymorphism.