Professor Alajos Kálmán passed away on 26th December 2017.

He was one of the most prominent scientists in crystallography of our time. He was a most productive, widely respected, much-admired and inspiring scientific leader. We recall him as an enthusiastic and entertaining head, colleague, teacher and friend who loved crystallography and made a huge contribution to it. We treasure our memories with him. He will be missed by the crystallographic community. Biography    

Expanding the Pillararene Chemistry: Synthesis and Application of a 10 + 1 Functionalized Pillar[5]arene

Márton Bojtár, András Simon, Petra Bombicz, and István Bitter Organic Letters (2017)  19 (17), 4528–4531 A novel functionality was introduced in the pillararene family by the Claisen rearrangement of monoallyl pillar[5]arene. This new key derivative can lead to the formation of a 10 + 1 functionalized derivative, a useful scaffold for further derivatization. Except for the previously known monodeprotection reaction, all steps proceed efficiently with high yields and easy separation. In addition, a solvent-responsive pseudo[1]rotaxane was synthesized based on this novel functionality. Read More …

Petra Bombicz is appointed to be the Editor-in-Chief of Crystallography Reviews from 1st January 2018.

Crystallography Reviews publishes English language reviews on topics in crystallography and crystal growth, covering all theoretical and applied aspects of biological, chemical, industrial, mineralogical and physical crystallography. The intended readership is the crystallographic community at large, as well as scientists working in related fields of interest.        

The group received an OTKA grant

OTKA grant of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office – NKFIH Title: Basics of “crystal engineering”: supramolecular interactions, polymorphysm, temperature and pressure Principal Investigator: Petra Bombicz Participants: Tamás Holczbauer Nóra V. May Laura Nagyné Bereczki Dániel Fegyverneki Gyula Tamás Gál

The way from isostructurality to polymorphy. Where are the borders? The role of supramolecular interactions and crystal symmetries.

Petra Bombicz Crystallography Reviews, 23(2), 118-151, 2017. ABSTRACT To produce substances with required physico-chemical properties demands the recognition of structural features of materials. It includes polymorphism and isostructurality which are strongly related with intermolecular interactions and crystal symmetries. Fine tuning of structural properties can be achieved by the application of substituents or in the case of multi-component systems by the introduction of molecules of different sizes, shapes and chemical compositions. How far can a crystal structure tolerate small molecular changes? Read More …

Exploring the boundaries of direct detection and characterization of labile isomers – a case study of copper(II)–dipeptide systems

Eszter Tóth, Nóra V. May, Antal Rockenbauer, Gábor Peintler and Béla Gyurcsik Dalton Trans., 2017,46, 8157-8166 ABSTRACT The investigation of the linkage isomers of biologically essential and kinetically labile metal complexes in aqueous solutions poses a challenge, as these microspecies cannot be separately studied. Therefore, derivatives are commonly used to initially determine the stability or spectral characteristics of at least one of the isomers. Here we directly detect the isomers, describe the metal ion coordination sphere, speciation and thermodynamic parameters by Read More …

Susan A. Bourne visited our laboratory

Prof. Susan A Bourne, the Head of Chemistry Department, the University of Cape Town, South Africa visited us between 7 and 12 June 2017 and delivered a lecture on Chromophoric framework solids for sensing and storage.     Chromophoric framework solids for sensing and storage Susan A. Bourne Centre for Supramolecular Chemistry Research, Department of Chemistry, University of Cape Town Abstract Polymeric coordination compounds, and their subset metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have provided a rich source of interest to researchers in Read More …