IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-11612-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Shape-memory effects in molecular crystals

Author

Listed:
  • Ejaz Ahmed

    (New York University Abu Dhabi)

  • Durga Prasad Karothu

    (New York University Abu Dhabi)

  • Mark Warren

    (Diamond Light Source)

  • Panče Naumov

    (New York University Abu Dhabi
    Harvard University)

Abstract

Molecular crystals can be bent elastically by expansion or plastically by delamination into slabs that glide along slip planes. Here we report that upon bending, terephthalic acid crystals can undergo a mechanically induced phase transition without delamination and their overall crystal integrity is retained. Such plastically bent crystals act as bimorphs and their phase uniformity can be recovered thermally by taking the crystal over the phase transition temperature. This recovers the original straight shape and the crystal can be bent by a reverse thermal treatment, resulting in shape memory effects akin of those observed with some metal alloys and polymers. We anticipate that similar memory and restorative effects are common for other molecular crystals having metastable polymorphs. The results demonstrate the advantage of using intermolecular interactions to accomplish mechanically adaptive properties with organic solids that bridge the gap between mesophasic and inorganic materials in the materials property space.

Suggested Citation

  • Ejaz Ahmed & Durga Prasad Karothu & Mark Warren & Panče Naumov, 2019. "Shape-memory effects in molecular crystals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-11612-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11612-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11612-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-11612-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lian-Cai An & Xiang Li & Zhi-Gang Li & Qite Li & Patrick J. Beldon & Fei-Fei Gao & Zi-Ying Li & Shengli Zhu & Lu Di & Sanchuan Zhao & Jian Zhu & Davide Comboni & Ilya Kupenko & Wei Li & U. Ramamurty &, 2022. "Plastic bending in a semiconducting coordination polymer crystal enabled by delamination," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Mehdi Rohullah & Vuppu Vinay Pradeep & Shruti Singh & Rajadurai Chandrasekar, 2024. "Mechanically controlled multifaceted dynamic transformations in twisted organic crystal waveguides," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Durga Prasad Karothu & Rodrigo Ferreira & Ghada Dushaq & Ejaz Ahmed & Luca Catalano & Jad Mahmoud Halabi & Zainab Alhaddad & Ibrahim Tahir & Liang Li & Sharmarke Mohamed & Mahmoud Rasras & Panče Naumo, 2022. "Exceptionally high work density of a ferroelectric dynamic organic crystal around room temperature," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Nan Zhang & Wencong Sun & Yao Zhang & Huan-Huan Jiang & Ren-Gen Xiong & Shuai Dong & Han-Yue Zhang, 2023. "Organic radical ferroelectric crystals with martensitic phase transition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Xuesong Yang & Linfeng Lan & Liang Li & Jinyang Yu & Xiaokong Liu & Ying Tao & Quan-Hong Yang & Panče Naumov & Hongyu Zhang, 2023. "Collective photothermal bending of flexible organic crystals modified with MXene-polymer multilayers as optical waveguide arrays," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-11612-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.