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An introduction to the virtual special issue in honor of Prof. William Jones, wherein the authors reflect on his scientific career and his many outstanding contributions to organic solid-state chemistry.

This Tutorial Review, aimed at both the novice and the seasoned solid-state chemist, provides a succinct overview of key findings that have, over the last half century, advanced our ability to make molecular crystals with targeted structures and desired properties. The article critically evaluates the efficiency and reliability of the well-established guidelines used by experimentalists in crystal engineering and highlights statistical and computational tools that are both advantageous to crystal design and accessible to experimental solid-state chemists.

A personal account of the hurdles encountered when studying each of the aspects of crystal engineering, namely, designing, building, and using crystal structures. Examples are given to illustrate the “backbreaking” nature of the crystal engineering endeavor, as well as the limitations of our current abilities to understand, engineer, and maintain molecular crystals.

Theophylline, a pharmaceutical model compound, was screened for cocrystal formation using nine (di)hydroxybenzoic acids as cocrystal formers, namely, 2-, 3-, 4-hydroxybenzoic- and 2,3-, 2,4-, 2,5-, 2,6-, 3,4-, and 3,5-dihydroxybenzoic acids. The experiments were conducted using an efficient, reliable, and fast screening method based on thermodynamically driven solution-mediated phase transformation and revealed the formation of eight cocrystals and one salt. The theophylline-based solids were identified using powder and structurally characterized via single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The obtained solids are sustained by theopylline-carboxylic acid heterosynthons, in addition to both theophylline and carboxylic acid homosynthons. The results are a part of a systematic study of xanthine-alkaloid cocrystals that aims to establish synthon hierarchies in cocrystals comprised of molecules with multiple hydrogen-bonding functional groups. Structural features and synthon hierachies are discussed and compared to t...

We apply crystal engineering principles to prepare organic co-crystals and salts of sulfadiazine and pyridines. Pyridines are molecular building blocks utilized in crystal engineering that can disrupt the hydrogen bonded (amidine) N–H···N (pyrimidine) dimer within the parent sulfa drug (SD) crystals, while providing access to both co-crystals and salts. We have synthesized four co-crystals and three salts of sulfadiazine involving N,N-dimethyl-4-aminopyridine, 4-aminopyridine, 4-picoline, 4,4′-bipyridine, (E)-1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethylene, 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)acetylene, and 4-(pyridin-4-yl)piperazine. Single-crystal X-ray analyses reveal three hydrogen-bond motifs, namely, dyads, rings, and chains based involving either (amidine/aniline) N–H···N (pyridine/pyrimidine), (pyridinium) +N–H···N– (amidide), (aniline/piperazine) N–H···O2S (sulfoxide) interactions, or a combination thereof. The hydrogen-bond motifs are assigned as D11(2), R22(8), R22(20), C22(17), and C22(13) graph sets. An analysis of the Cambridge S...

Caffeine, a pharmaceutical model compound, generally forms cocrystals with carboxylic acids that involve an O−H···N hydrogen bond between the carboxylic acid group of the acid and the caffeine imidazole moiety. Such solids are typically based on a single heterosynthon. To examine the facility of introducing additional supramolecular heterosynthons to the caffeine-carboxylic-acid cocrystal system, structural isomers of aromatic carboxylic acids (i.e., hydroxy- and dihydroxybenzoic acids) with additional hydrogen-bonding functional groups (i.e., hydroxy group) were screened for cocrystal formation. For this purpose, a highly efficient screening method based on thermodynamically driven solution-mediated phase transformation was utilized. This method enabled the rapid discovery of nine new solid phases involving caffeine. These caffeine phases were identified using single-crystal X-ray diffraction and FT-IR spectroscopy as cocrystals based on 2-, 3-, 4-hydroxybenzoic- and 2,3-, 2,4-, 2,5-, 3,4-, and 3,5-dihyd...