Understanding and control of nucleation, growth, habit, dissolution and structure of two- and three-dimensional crystals using `tailor-made' auxiliaries

Abstract

Tailor-made auxiliaries for the control of nucleation and growth of molecular crystals may be classified into two broad categories: inhibitors and promoters.Tailor-made inhibitors of crystal growth can be used for a variety of purposes, which include morphological engineering and etching, reduction of crystal symmetry, assignment of absolute structure of chiral molecules and polar crystals, elucidation of the effect of solvent on crystal growth, and crystallization of a desired polymorph.As for crystal growth promoters, monolayers of amphiphilic molecules on water have been used to induce the growth of a variety of three-dimensional crystals at the monolayer-solution interface by means of structural match, molecular complementarity or electrostatic interaction.A particular focus is made on the induced nucleation of ice by mono-Leslie Leiserowitz obtained his PhD in 1966, working on thermochromy in the group of the late Gerhard Schmidt at the Weizmann Institute of Science.He then moved to the Organic Chemistry Institute of the University of Heidelberg when he began a systematic investigation of the structural patterns and physical properites of organic crystals.Meir Lahav obtained his PhD in 1967 in solid-state chemistry, also in Gerhard Schmidt's research group.He did postdoctoral research with Paul Bartlett at Harvard.On his return to Israel, he embarked on a program for the design of systems for the generation and amplification of optical activity via crystallization.It was during this period that the Lahav-Leiserowitz collaboration started, with studies of photochemical reactions in solids.This team-work continued with a study of crystal nucleation, growth and dissolution in the presence of tailor-made auxiliaries.Ronit Popovitz-Biro received her PhD in solid-state chemistry in 1979, working in the research group of M. Lahav.After a postdoctoral period at the University of California she returned to the Weizmann Institute.She has since directed her efforts at the oriented growth of crystals via Langmuir monolayers and the design of multilayer films.Isabelle Weissbuch received her PhD in chemistry in 1985 at the Weizmann Institute of Science.She has continued to work at the Weizmann Institute where her main interest has been solid-state chemistry, with emphasis on the design and use of auxiliaries for the control of crystal nucleation, morphology and polymorphism, as well as structure determination of mono-and multilayer films.