Crystals, Volume 7, Issue 10

FOX (Free Objects for Xtallography) is a computer program for solving crystal structures of all types of compounds using the powder data (but also the single crystal data) measured using X-ray, neutron and electron diffraction. It works in direct spa...

CaCO₃ spherulites were found in the myostracum layer of common limpet shells collected from East Sands, St Andrews, Scotland. Their microstructures were revealed by using powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmi...

Nanoindentation is a well-stablished experiment to study the mechanical properties of materials at the small length scales of micro and nano. Unlike the conventional indentation experiments, the nanoindentation response of the material depends on the...

Bis(diphenylphosphino)methane copper(I) tetrahydroborate was synthesized by ligands exchange in bis(triphenylphosphine) copper(I) tetrahydroborate, and characterized by XRD, FTIR, NMR spectroscopy. According to XRD the title compound has dimeric stru...

Wide band gap II-VI semiconductor nanostructures have been extensively studied according to their great potentials for optoelectronic applications, while heterojunctions are fundamental elements for modern electronic and optoelectronic devices. Subse...

III-(As, Sb) alloys are building blocks for various advanced optoelectronic devices, but the growth of their ternary or quaternary materials are commonly limited by spontaneous formation of clusters and phase separations during alloying. Recently, di...

The mechanical strengths of nano-scale individual crystal or nanopolycrystalline metals, and other dimensionally-related materials are increased by an order of magnitude or more as compared to those values measured at conventional crystal or polycrys...

Liquid crystal (LC) is a promising candidate for terahertz (THz) devices. Recently, LC has been introduced to generate THz vortex beams. However, the efficiency is intensely dependent on the incident wavelength, and the transformed THz vortex beam is...

X-ray diffraction showed that an La_7.0Mg_75.5Ni_17.5 alloy prepared via inductive melting was composed of an La₂Mg₁₇ phase, an LaMg₂Ni phase, and an Mg₂Ni phase. After the first hydrogen absorption/desorption process, the phases of the alloy turned int...

In the present investigation, the oxidizing roasting process of chromite with sodium carbonate to prepare potassium dichromate crystals was studied in the microwave field with air, by heating the chromite and sodium carbonate. The chromite and sodium...

The analysis of atomic ordering in a nanocrystalline phase with small particle sizes, below 5 nm, is intrinsically complicated because of the lack of long-range order. Furthermore, the presence of additional crystalline phase(s) may exacerbate the pr...

To study the structural effects in three-dimensional porous coordination polymers, three novel flexible porous coordination polymers—[Cd₂(bpdc)₂](DMF)₃(H₂O) (1) and [M(bpdc)](DMF)(H₂O) (M = Cd (2), Zn (3))—have been synthesized under solvothermal con...

Over the last 20 years, great progress has been made in techniques for electrostatic levitation, with innovations such as containerless thermophysical property measurements and combination of levitators with synchrotron radiation source and neutron b...

The pinning effect of cerium inclusions in the austenite grain growth of SS400 steel at 1300 °C is investigated by using a semi-empirical-simulation. Firstly, steel samples containing cerium inclusions are prepared; then the properties of inclusions...

Three-dimensional protein molecule structures are essential for acquiring a deeper insight of the human genome, and for developing novel protein-based pharmaceuticals. X-ray diffraction studies of such structures require well-diffracting protein crys...

Indentation as a method to characterize materials has a history of more than 117 years. However, to date, it is still the most popular way to measure the mechanical properties of various materials at microscale and nanoscale. This review summarizes t...

To investigate the variation in the characteristics of rock microstructure after cyclic dynamic disturbances, a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) was used to carry out cyclic dynamic impact tests on granite, and the P-wave velocity was used as the...

A new hydrated benzimidazolium salt containing spiro structure was obtained when benzimidazole is added to ethyl alcohol of 1,5-dioxaspiro[5.5]undecane-2,4-dione and trimethoxymethane. The title compound (C₁₉H₂₁O₈) (C₇H₇N₂) (0.5H₂O) was characterized...

This paper reviews the empire problem for quasiperiodic tilings and the existing methods for generating the empires of the vertex configurations in quasicrystals, while introducing a new and more efficient method based on the cut-and-project techniqu...

A novel Ba(II) complex, [BaL₂Cl₂] (1) (L = pyridine-2-carboxaldehyde-2-phenylacetic acid hydrazone), has been synthesized using BaCl₂, pyridine-2-carboxaldehyde and 2-phenylacetohydrazide as raw materials. The structure of 1 has been determined by el...

Water is a fundamental solvent sustaining life, key to the conformations and equilibria associated with solute species. Emerging studies on nucleation and crystallization phenomena reveal that the dynamics of hydration associated with mineral precurs...

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light can be another physical dimension that we exploit to make multiplexing in the spatial domain. The design of the OAM mode supporting fiber attracts many attentions in the field of the space division multiple...

The lanthanum deficiency manganites La_0.8-x□xCa_0.2MnO₃ (x = 0, 0.1 and 0.2), where □ is a lanthanum vacancy, were prepared using the classic ceramic methods with different thermal treatments (1373 K and 973 K). The structural, magnetic, and magnetoca...

Ice nucleation is a stochastic process and it is very difficult to be controlled. Freezing technologies and more specifically crystallisation assisted by magnetic, electric and electromagnetic fields have the capability to interact with nucleation. S...

We overview recent progress in growth aspects of group III-nitride heterostructures for deep ultraviolet (DUV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs), with particular emphasis on the growth approaches for attaining high-quality AlN and high Al-molar fraction A...

Recently, two-dimensional (2D) charge density wave (CDW) materials have attracted extensive interest due to potential applications as high performance functional nanomaterials. As other 2D materials, 2D CDW materials are layered materials with strong...

The genes encoding three coiled-coil regions in human pericentrin were gene synthesized with Escherichia coli codon-optimization, and the proteins were successfully over-produced in large quantities using E. coli expression. After verifying that the...

A new complex, [Cu₄(HL)₄(H₂O)₁₄] (1, H₃L·HCl = 5-((4-carboxypiperidin-1-yl)methyl)isophthalic acid hydrochloride), has been prepared and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffracti...

The relationship between emissivity, delay time, and surface growth for metastable solidification of CoSi-62 at. % eutectic alloys is reported from undercooling experiments conducted using electrostatic levitation. A fraction of the undercooled melt...

Sono-crystallisation has been used to enhance crystalline product quality particularly in terms of purity, particle size and size distribution. In this work, the effect of impurities and ultrasound on crystallisation processes (nucleation temperature...

Conjugated polymers are considered for application in thermoelectric energy conversion due to their low thermal conductivity, low weight, non-toxicity, and ease of fabrication, which promises low manufacturing costs. Here, an investigation of the the...

This review covers areas where our understanding of the mechanisms underlying nanoindentation has been increased by atomistic studies of the nanoindentation process. While such studies have been performed now for more than 20 years, recent investigat...

Solution-processed organic-inorganic halide perovskites are currently established as the hottest area of interest in the world of photovoltaics, ensuring low manufacturing cost and high conversion efficiencies. Even though various fabrication/deposit...

Using a two-step procedure, N’-cyano-N,N’-dimethyl-4-nitrobenzohydrazide was synthesized. The structure was established using single crystal X-ray diffraction. It crystalized in the orthorhombic space group P2₁2₁2₁ where a = 8.1974(6), b = 10.6696(7)...

Solution crystallization and dissolution are of fundamental importance to science and industry alike and are key processes in the production of many pharmaceutical products, special chemicals, and so forth. The ability to predict crystal growth and d...

The microstructure and magnetocaloric properties of the melt-spun and annealed Mn₅₀Ni_40.5In_9.5 ribbons were studied. It is shown that the post-annealing results in a considerable increase of the grain size for the initial austenite, where the columna...

The present work aims to investigate the applicability of ionic liquids (ILs) for natural ingredient crystallization. First, the medicinal plant, namely Angelica gigas Nakai, was extracted using methanol (MeOH) as a solvent. Afterwards, ILs 1-butyl-3...

The electro-optical performance of nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) dispersed with gold nanoparticles (GNPs) was investigated in this study. The addition of a small amount of GNP dopant decreased the threshold voltage for LC reorientation due to the de...

Although the Neutral-Ionic transition in mixed stack charge-transfer crystals was discovered almost forty years ago, many features of this intriguing phase transition, as well as open questions, remain at the heart of today’s science. First of all, t...

Crystals is instituting the Best Paper Award to recognize the outstanding papers published in the journal. We are pleased to announce the “Crystals Best Paper Award” for 2017. [...]