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Predicting the structures and associated phase transition mechanisms in disordered crystals via a combination of experimental and theoretical methods.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Ruggiero, Michael T 
Kölbel, Johanna 
Zeitler, J Axel 

Abstract

Disordered materials make up a large proportion of condensed phase systems, but the difficulties in describing their structures and molecular dynamics limit their potential applications. Disordered crystalline systems, also known as plastic crystals, offer a unique perspective into these factors because the systems retain a degree of crystallinity, reducing the degrees of freedom that must be explored when interpreting the results. However, while disordered crystals do diffract X-rays, it is difficult to fully resolve meaningful crystalline structures, with the best scenario resulting in lattice parameters. In this study, we use a combination of experimental terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, and theoretical solid-state ab initio density functional theory and molecular dynamics simulations to fully elucidate the structures and associated dynamics of organic molecular solids. The results highlight that this combination provides a complete description of the energetic and mechanistic pathways involved in the formation of disordered crystals, and highlights the importance of low-frequency dynamics in their properties. Finally, with structures fully determined and validated by the experimental results, recent progress into anharmonic calculations, namely the quasi-harmonic approximation method, enables full temperature and pressure-dependent properties to be understood within the framework of the potential energy hyper-surface structure.

Description

Keywords

0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural), 0307 Theoretical and Computational Chemistry

Journal Title

Faraday Discuss

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1359-6640
1364-5498

Volume Title

211

Publisher

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Sponsorship
EPSRC (1198)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L015889/1)
The authors thank the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for funding (EP/N022769/1). Simulations were possible via our membership of the UK’s HEC Materials Chemistry Consortium, which is funded by the EPSRC (EP/L000202), and this work used the ARCHER UK National Supercomputing Service (http://www.archer.ac.uk). JAZ and JK thank the EPSRC Cambridge Centre for Doctoral Training in Sensor Technologies and Applications (EP/L015889/1).