Abstract
A review. Diffraction methods are a powerful tool to investigate the crystal structure of organic compounds in general and their hydrates in particular. The laboratory standard technique of single crystal X-ray diffraction gives information about the molecular conformation, packing and hydrogen bonding in the crystal structure, while powder X-ray diffraction on bulk material can trace hydration/dehydration processes and phase transitions under non-ambient conditions. Neutron diffraction is a valuable complementary technique to X-ray diffraction and gives highly accurate hydrogen atom positions due to the interaction of the radiation with the atomic nuclei. Although not yet often applied to organic hydrates, neutron single crystal and neutron powder diffraction give precise structural data on hydrogen bonding networks which will help explain why hydrates form in the first place.
Highlights
The structure of water and the way it self-assembles and interacts with dissolved solutes and with hydrophobic surfaces continues to be highly topical [1,2,3,4,5]
Water 2010, 2 crystal lattice, i.e., hydrate formation, is of academic interest but has application or significance in a variety of contexts in the chemical industry, since this phenomenon is well known for a plethora of different chemical substances
This brief review looks at common powder and single crystal diffraction based techniques that are applied to the study of crystalline hydrates of organic compounds and gives a brief overview of some of the fascinating structural insights that both X-ray and neutron diffraction can reveal about the structure of water in a crystalline lattice
Summary
The structure of water and the way it self-assembles and interacts with dissolved solutes and with hydrophobic surfaces continues to be highly topical [1,2,3,4,5]. Diffraction data give detailed structural information that potentially allows a level of understanding, prediction and control of hydrate formation. This brief review looks at common powder and single crystal diffraction based techniques that are applied to the study of crystalline hydrates of organic compounds and gives a brief overview of some of the fascinating structural insights that both X-ray and neutron diffraction can reveal about the structure of water in a crystalline lattice
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