2012 Crystal Engineering GRC/GRS

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TECHNICALThe 2012 Crystal Engineering Gordon Research Conference (GRC), partly supported by the Solid State and Materials Chemistry program, follows the highly successful first ever GRC on Crystal Engineering (2010) which had over 160 international participants. The 2012 Crystal Engineering GRC will also include a new and exciting Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) in which only students and postdocs may present or lead discussions. Crystal engineering is the design and synthesis of functional solid-state structures (e.g., new organic molecular crystals and metal-organic co-ordination polymers and framework solids (MOFs)), based on a bottom-up approach from smaller building blocks such as neutral organic molecules, and organic or inorganic ions. Typical design strategies use hydrogen bonds and coordination bonds, which define sub-structural units that are called respectively, supramolecular synthons and secondary building units. This subject cuts across the traditional divisions of organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry, making for a very eclectic blend of ideas, techniques, and strategies. The field has developed to a stage that cross-fertilization between topics is expected to promote significant advancements in a general quest to afford functional materials. The topics cover both fundamentals and applications of Crystal Engineering that have relevance to important areas such as organic synthesis, pharmaceutics, and energy storage.NON TECHNICALCrystal Engineering is one of the more contemporary areas of chemical research today and is central to many fundamental problems that are currently facing society. It is expected that developments in this rapidly developing field will meet societal demands that are not currently being addressed by more conventional approaches to synthetic chemistry and materials science. Examples of areas where Crystal Engineering can address current societal challenges include the rational design and construction of hydrogen storage materials and efforts to control drug polymorphism. Moreover, knowing how to deliberately place both the organic and metal components into positions that optimize gas uptake can be realized by participants of our conference that do not normally work in the gas storage area. This GRC will seek to aggressively recruit graduate students, postdocs, and junior level professionals to attend the GRC and enable them to not only learn from the talks and discussions, but allow them to make important contacts for their future development; NSF funding assists in this endeavor. The GRC Chair and Vice-Chair will actively recruit underrepresented groups, at least one small step toward the goal of diversity in the Crystal Engineering community reflective of the general population.