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Acta Cryst. (2014). A70, C756
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Single crystal X-ray diffraction data from several Hydroquinone clathrate systems, with various small guest molecules (e.g. HCOOH, MeOH), have been obtained up to a pressure of 10 GPa, using a diamond anvil cell (DAC). Hydroquinone clathrates are key examples of supramolecular aggregates, having a diverse structural chemistry controlled, to a large extent, by the detailed intermolecular interactions between the host and the guest molecules. Although supramolecular chemistry is the foundation for the design and development of advanced materials (e.g. for catalysis, targeted drug delivery, chemical separation and nonlinear optics) the basic understanding leading to such complex systems are often lacking. High pressure (HP) crystallography is an excellent method of systematically increasing host-guest interactions by forcing the molecules closer together, often leading to interesting and unexpected results. At ambient pressure smaller guest molecules are often disordered inside the clathrate cavities. As the external pressure increases the cavities shrink, and it seems likely that guest molecules will order inside the cavity breaking the host symmetry. Guest ordering transitions are also found upon cooling. In this work, results from HP studies of the hydroquinone - formic acid system reveal that the structure is stable up to 10 GPa, at which pressure the guest cavity volume is reduced by more than 50 % without ordering of the guest atoms. Earlier studies have shown that the empty Hydroquinone clathrate undergoes a phase transition into a nonporous structure already at 0.4 GPa. [1] This indicates that formic acid stabilizes the host framework through strong intermolecular host-guest interactions, but without lowering the host symmetry.

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Acta Cryst. (2014). A70, C901
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Intramolecular electron transfer (ET) in mixed valence (MV) oxo-centered [FeiiFeiii2O(carboxylate)6(ligand)3]·solvent complexes is highly dependent on temperature, on the nature of the ligands, and on the presence of crystal solvent molecules [1]. Whereas the effects of temperature, crystal solvent, and ligand variation on the details of the ET have been explored thoroughly, the effect of pressure is less well described [2]. The effect of pressure on the ET in MV Fe3O(cyanoacetate)6(water)3 has been investigated with single crystal X-ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy. Previous multi-temperature studies have shown that at room temperature the ET between the three Fe sites is fast and the observed structure of the Fe3 core is a perfectly equilateral triangle [3]. Cooling the complex below 130 K induces a phase transition as the ET slows down. Below 120 K the Fe3 core is distorted due to the localization of the itinerant electron on one of the three Fe sites in the triangle (the complex is then in the valence trapped state). The valence trapping is complete within a temperature interval of just 10 K. The abruptness of the transition has been attributed to the extended hydrogen bond network involving water ligands and cyano groups, promoting intermolecular cooperative effects. The high-pressure X-ray diffraction data show that there is a 900 flip of half the cyano groups at 3.5 GPa, which dramatically changes the hydrogen bond network. At a slightly higher pressure, a phase transition is found to occur. The five single crystals investigated all broke into minor fragments at the transition; however triclinic unit cells, similar to the low temperature unit cell, could be indexed from selected spots. Additional evidence that the complex is valence trapped comes from high pressure Mössbauer spectra measured above the phase transition (4 GPa). The relationship between valence trapping and the structural changes will in this work be highlighted using void space and Hirshfeld surface analysis.
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