Deformation-Induced Structural Transformations in Molecular Crystals

The physical mechanisms of the deformation-induced structural transformations in molecular crystals, including morphological changes, amorphization and molecular polymorphous conversions in nano-dispersed bioinorganic compounds are discussed in this work. Integrated study using direct structural and structure-sensitive spectroscopic methods allowed obtaining the data on polymorphous transformations, taking place during mechanical activation in calcium gluconate monohydrate (CG). One of the possible reasons for lattice polymorphous transformations and amorphization, observed in the course of mechanical activation of low-symmetry molecular crystals, might be the spatial molecular isomerization. In this case, the disappearance of the translational invariance of the lattice is conditioned by the simultaneous coexistence of the reactants and reaction products, which have different stereoorganization of the molecular structure.