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Challenges of organic “cocrystals”

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Abstract

Organic cocrystal (also “co-crystal”), formed with two or more different components via non-covalent intermolecular interactions, possesses novel, unpredicted and unique properties, which are not the simple sum of those molecular components, e.g., with effect of 1+1>2. In this regard, organic cocrystals provide a distinctive strategy for the synthesis of novel multifunctional materials, and an important platform for exploring new fundamental physicochemical phenomena in molecular systems, such as high conductivity, ambipolar charge transportation, photovoltaic behavior, white light-emitting, room-temperature phosphorescence, nonlinear optics and ferroelectricity etc., with potential application even in liquid crystal engineering and drug industry.

中文摘要

本文简明扼要地介绍了“有机共晶”这个重要研究领域的兴起和发展过程, 在有争议的方面, 如共晶定义和如何判定分子排布等, 给出了作者独到的见解. 特别重要的是, 通过阐述该领域当前存在的问题和挑战, 结合分析最新的研究进展和结果, 使得人们对共晶的认识更为系统和深入. 基于此, 作者同时分析和指出了未来可能重点发展的研究方向.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100190, China

    Weigang Zhu, Huanli Dong, Yonggang Zhen & Wen** Hu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Weigang Zhu

Authors
  1. Weigang Zhu
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  2. Huanli Dong
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  3. Yonggang Zhen
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  4. Wen** Hu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Huanli Dong or Wen** Hu.

Additional information

Weigang Zhu was born in 1988. He is now a PhD candidate in the Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS). His research interest is design, synthesis and applications of organic cocrystals, including: (1) basic nucleation and growth mechanism of cocrystals and related controlled self-assembling; (2) advanced physicochemical properties of cocrystals, such as ambipolar charge transport, white-light emitting, lasering, non-linear optics, ferroelectrics and spintronics; (3) ultrafast exciton and molecular dynamics in cocrystals.

Huanli Dong is an associate professor of the ICCAS. She grew up in Shandong province, China. She received her PhD degree from the ICCAS in 2009 after she got her MSc degree in Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Material, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006. She is presently focusing on the self-assembling of molecular materials and the application of molecular materials in optoelectronic devices, and she has more than 90 refereed publications with citation over 2500 times (H index=22).

Wen** Hu is a professor of the ICCAS. He received his PhD from the ICCAS in 1999. He then joined Osaka University as a research fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences and Stuttgart University as an Alexander von Humboldt. In 2003 he worked for Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, and then returned to ICCAS and was promoted as full professor. His research focuses on molecular electronics and he has more than 350 refereed publications with citation over 10000 times (H index=53).

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Zhu, W., Dong, H., Zhen, Y. et al. Challenges of organic “cocrystals”. Sci. China Mater. 58, 854–859 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-015-0099-1

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