Molecular Materials and Crystal Engineering

Molecular Materials are compounds formed by small species with defined composition that assemble through intermolecular interactions or coordination bonds. Thus, by understanding how these interactions are formed, it becomes possible to design stronger bonding motifs that enable the manipulation of the crystal structure of the resulting material. This, in turn, allows the tuning of properties, especially those dependent on the molecular-level structure or on the crystal packing. The science dedicated to studying how to manipulate structures and properties is known as Crystal Engineering, which has as a strong ally Supramolecular Chemistry (chemistry beyond the molecule — that is, the chemistry of interactions).