Research Paper on the Supplementary...

Researchers from the Department of Chemistry Mateja Pisačić, Ivan Kodrin, Marijana Đaković, and a former student on the Department Amanda Trninić have published their latest results in the ACS journal Chemistry of Materials (IF 9.811), in a paper titled Two-Dimensional Anisotropic Flexibility of Mechanically Responsive Crystalline Cadmium(II) Coordination Polymers.

The paper has been featured on the supplementary cover of the Journal issue.

Crystals of a family of six one-dimensional coordination polymers of cadmium(II) with cyanopyridines presented a variety of morphologies and mechanical responses with dominant two-dimensional (2D) anisotropic flexibility, which has not been previously reported. All mechanically adaptable crystals were 2D flexible and displayed a variety of direction-dependent responses; in addition to 2D isotropic flexibility observed for solely elastic materials, 2D anisotropic flexibility was noticed for both elastic and elastic → plastic crystals. The consequences of fine and controlled structural variations on mechanical behaviour were additionally explored via microfocus single-crystal X-ray diffraction and complementary theoretical studies, revealing that the relative strength and direction of the hydrogen bonding interactions were the key parameters in delivering a specific mechanical response.

The newly described 2D anisotropic mechanical responsiveness of crystals together with the findings on the origin thereof represents a significant advancement in the understanding of the mechanical responses in crystalline mater, and in consequence will broaden the range of possibilities for the engineering and delivery of targeted mechanical responses, thus making the crystalline materials at disposal for practical applications in advanced technologies.

The research was performed as a part of the research project From form to function: Mechanically flexible crystalline materials with controllable responses (FlexibleCrystals) funded by the Croatian Science Foundation.

Author: Adriana Kenđel
News list