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Noncovalent Interactions and Applications in Materials and Catalysis

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Prof. Dr. Snežana D. Zarić

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Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Interests: noncovalent interactions; metal complexes; catalysis; cheminformatics; quantum chemistry; DFT calculations; hydrogen bonds; stacking interactions; proteins

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Noncovalent interactions exist in all molecular systems from the environment to living organisms; they exist in supramolecular structures, in crystals, and in liquid phase and play an important role in materials and in catalysis. The role of hydrogen bonds and aromatic interactions in living organisms was recognized a long time ago. Many properties of molecular systems are affected by noncovalent interactions. Noncovalent interactions are often observed and studied in crystal structures or using spectroscopic methods, and also using computational methods such as quantum chemistry and force field calculations.

This Special Issue aims to address the latest research on noncovalent interactions and applications in materials and in catalysis. Noncovalent interactions determine the properties of the materials, while in catalysis noncovalent interactions play an important role in influencing the activation barrier and selectivity of a catalyst. The studies in which noncovalent interactions are observed and characterized as well as studies demonstrating the role of noncovalent interactions in materials and catalysis are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Snežana D. Zarić
Guest Editor

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Keywords

noncovalent interactions
materials
catalysis
crystal structures
quantum chemistry calculations
hydrogen bonds
stacking interactions
spectroscopy

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28 pages, 30265 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Alkylbenzoic and Alkyloxybenzoic Acid Blending for Expanding the Liquid Crystalline State and Improving Its Rheology

by Anastasiya Y. Yadykova, Ivan I. Konstantinov, Anna V. Vlasova, Lydia A. Varfolomeeva and Sergey O. Ilyin

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(21), 15706; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242115706 - 28 Oct 2023

Viewed by 810

Abstract

Thermotropic mesogens typically exist as liquid crystals (LCs) in a narrow region of high temperatures, making lowering their melting point with the temperature expansion of the mesophase state an urgent task. Para-substituted benzoic acids can form LCs through noncovalent dimerization into homodimers via hydrogen bonds, whose strength and, consequently, the temperature region of the mesophase state can be potentially altered by creating asymmetric heterodimers from different acids. This work investigates equimolar blends of p-n-alkylbenzoic (kBA, where k is the number of carbon atoms in the alkyl radical) and p-n-alkyloxybenzoic (kOBA) acids by calorimetry and viscometry to establish their phase transitions and regions of mesophase existence. Non-symmetric dimerization of acids leads to the extension of the nematic state region towards low temperatures and the appearance of new monotropic and enantiotropic phase transitions in several cases. Moreover, the crystal–nematic and nematic–isotropic phase changes have a two-step character for some acid blends, suggesting the formation of symmetric and asymmetric associates from heterodimers. The mixing of 6BA and 8OBA most strongly extends the region of the nematic state towards low temperatures (from 95–114 °C and 108–147 °C for initial homodimers, respectively, to 57–133 °C for the resulting heterodimer), whereas the combination of 4OBA and 5OBA gives the most extended high-temperature nematic phase (up to 156 °C) and that of 6BA and 9OBA (or 12OBA) provides the existence of a smectic phase at the lowest temperatures (down to 51 °C). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Noncovalent Interactions and Applications in Materials and Catalysis)

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