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CCDC 2385610: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

Cell Parameters

CCDC 2385611: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

Cell Parameters

Crystal structure prediction with host-guided inpainting generation and foundation potentials

Unconditional crystal structure generation with diffusion models faces challenges in identifying symmetric crystals as the unit cell size increases. Here, we present the crystal host-guided generation (CHGGen) framework to address this challenge through conditional generation using an inpainting method, which optimizes a fraction of atomic positions within a predefined and symmetrized host structure to improve the success rate for symmetric structure generation. By integrating inpainting structure generation with a foundation potential for structure optimization, we demonstrate the method on the ZnS–P 2 S 5 and Li–Si chemical systems, where the inpainting method generates a higher fraction of symmetric structures than unconditional generation. The practical significance of CHGGen extends to enabling the structural modification of crystal structures, particularly for systems with partial occupancy or intercalation chemistry. The inpainting method also allows for seamless integration with other generative models, providing a versatile framework for accelerating materials discovery.

Zhong, Peichen [University of California, Berkeley

Influence of shape on crystal structure and optical properties of heterocyclic conjugated molecules

Organic optoelectronics are increasingly important due to their tunablilty, flexibility, and solution processability. Tuning optical properties of these materials as solids relies on the balance of weak non-covalent interactions that dictate crystal structure, but are difficult to predict. Our research aims to improve our understanding of how electrostatic interactions can direct and facilitate intramolecular interactions that dictate emergent properties of crystalline materials. This paper focuses on exploring how multi-fused thiophene ring systems that are popular in modern organic optoelectronic materials impact intramolecular interactions, while also investigating the role of molecular shape. In these examples, the shape of heterocyclic systems correlate with the crystal structures: while the bent heterocyclics show no discrete and discernable intramolecular interactions, those with bent shapes interact cofacially with one of the electron poor ArF pendants by twisting the arylene ethynylene backbone. Two of the control molecules, which bear non-fluorinated benzyl ester substituents, show intramolecular edge-face interactions, and several of these molecules show clear polymorphic behavior. Furthermore, these findings further our understanding of how discrete interactions can be altered not only by electrostatics, but also by shape, allowing for increasingly nuanced control over the crystal structures and optical properties of optoelectronic materials.

Guzmán, Elisa

Crystal structure of alpha poly-p-xylylene.

A crystal structure of alpha poly-p-xylylene is proposed with the help of data of oriented crystals grown during polymerization. The unit cell is monoclinic with the parameters a = 8.57 A, b = 10.62 A, c = 6.54 A (chain axis), and beta = 101.3 deg. Four repeating units per cell lead to a calculated density of 1.185 g/cu cm and a packing density of 0.71. The probable space group is P2 sub 1/m.

Kubo, S.

Structural Basis for Flip-Flop Action of Thiamin-Dependent Enzymes Revealed by Crystal Structure of Human Pyruvate Dehydrogenase

The biologically active derivative of vitamin B1; thiamin pyrophosphate; is used as cofactor by many enzymes that perform a wide range of catalytic functions in the pathways of energy production. In alpha2beta2-heterotetrameric human pyruvate dehydrogenase, the first catalytic component enzyme of human pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, this cofactor is used to cleave the C(sup alpha)-C(=0) bond of pyruvate followed by reductive acetyl transfer to lipoyl-dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase, the second catalytic component of the complex. The dynamic nonequivalence of two, otherwise chemically equivalent, catalytic sites have puzzled researchers from earlier functional studies of this enzyme. In order to gain insight into the mechanism of action of this enzyme, we determined the crystal structure of the holoform of human pyruvate dehydrogenase at 1.958, resolution. We propose a kinetic model for the flip-flop action of this enzyme through the concerted approx. 2A, shuttle-like motion of the heterodimers. The similarity of thiamin pyrophosphate binding in human pyruvate dehydrogenase and other functionally related enzymes suggests this newly defined mechanism of shuttle-like motion of domains to be common for the family of thiamin pyrophosphate-dependent enzymes.

Ciszak, Ewa

AI-assisted rapid crystal structure generation towards a target local environment

In material design, traditional crystal structure prediction approaches are expensive as they require extensive structural sampling through expensive energy minimization methods. Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) generative models have shown great promise in rapidly generating realistic crystals, but they typically handle only a few tens of atoms per unit cell. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a symmetry-informed approach, the Local Environment Geometry-Oriented Crystal Generator (LEGO-xtal). Our method generates initial structures using AI models trained on an augmented dataset, and then optimizes them using structure descriptors rather than energy-based optimization. We demonstrate its effectiveness by expanding from 25 known low-energy sp2 carbon allotropes to over 1700, all within 0.5 eV/atom of the ground-state energy of graphite. This framework offers a generalizable strategy for the targeted design of materials with modular building blocks, such as metal-organic frameworks and battery materials.

Ridwan, Osman Goni [University of North Carolina a

Crystal structure, compressibility, and thermal expansion of uranium mononitride

The behavior of the uranium mononitride (UN) crystal structure at nonambient conditions is disputed, with studies proposing various mutually exclusive distortions and transformations of the conventional face-centered-cubic structure at extreme temperatures and pressures. Here, in this study, we investigated the UN lattice with diamond anvil cell x-ray diffraction experiments at pressures up to 92 GPa and with density functional theory calculations at temperatures up to 1000 K and pressures up to 90 GPa. We determined that while the UN structure is nearly cubic at ambient conditions, its lattice angle (𝛼) varies as a function of pressure and temperature, meaning its structure can be more precisely described as face-centered-rhombohedral with 𝛼 ≈ 90∘. Over the range of conditions we investigated, UN exhibits a single, isostructural phase transition at ≈ 35 GPa, where 𝛼 collapses to ≈ 86°. Measurements and calculations agree that the compressibility of UN increases significantly beyond this transition, with the bulk modulus falling from ≈ 200 GPa in the low-pressure phase to 121 ± 3 GPa (according to calculations) or 58 ± 4 GPa (according to measurements) in the high-pressure phase. Our measurements also allowed us to constrain the bulk modulus of 𝛼−U 2 ⁢N 3 to 240 ± 10 GPa.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Crystal structure and polymorphic forms of auranofin revisited

Auranofin, initially developed as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, is currently under extensive investigation as a potential drug for various conditions, including cancer, bacterial infections, and parasitic infections. The compound is a known inhibitor of thioredoxin reductase (TXNRD1) and related selenoproteins. Although preliminary studies on the auranofin crystal polymorphism exist, and a low-quality crystal structure has been reported, a comprehensive crystallographic characterization remains unexplored. Utilizing X-ray crystallography techniques, we conducted detailed structural analysis of auranofin and compared our findings with related organogold compounds. Implementation of Hirshfeld atom refinement (HAR) enabled a more accurate hydrogen atom positioning in the structure. The crystal packing reveals a layered arrangement stabilised by numerous weak hydrogen bonds and dispersive interactions. Notably, our attempts to reproduce the previously reported polymorphic form of auranofin, purportedly more water-soluble, were unsuccessful despite following published protocols. To our knowledge, this is the first study describing a “disappearing polymorph” phenomenon of any pharmaceutically relevant transition metal coordination compound. Our findings may have significant implications for medicinal chemistry and pharmacology of coordination complexes, suggesting the need for systematic revision of historical crystallographic data in this field.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH