No abstract

Nuclear electric field gradient (EFG) tensor parameters depend strongly on electronic structures, making their calculation from first principles an excellent metric for the prediction, refinement, and optimization of crystal structures. Here, we use plane-wave density functional theory (DFT) calculations of EFG tensors in organic solids to optimize the Grimme (D2) and Tkatchenko–Scheffler (TS) atomic-pairwise force field dispersion corrections. Refinements using these new force field correction methods result in better representations of true crystal structures, as gauged by calculations of 177 14N, 17O, and 35Cl EFG tensors from 95 materials. The most striking result is the degree by which calculations of 35Cl EFG tensors of chloride ions match with experiment, due to the ability of these new methods to properly locate the positions of hydrogen atoms participating in H···Cl– hydrogen bonds. These refined structures also feature atomic coordinates that are more similar to those of neutron diffraction structures than those obtained from calculations that do not employ the optimized force fields. Additionally, we assess the quality of these new energy-minimization protocols for the prediction of 15N magnetic shielding tensors and unit cell volumes, which complement the larger analysis using EFG tensors, since these quantities have different physical origins. It is hoped that these results will be useful in future nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) crystallographic studies and will be of great interest to a wide variety of researchers, in fields including NMR spectroscopy, computational chemistry, crystallography, pharmaceutical sciences, and crystal engineering.

The organic components in metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) are unique: they are embedded in a crystalline lattice, yet, as they are separated from each other by tunable free space, a large variety of dynamic behavior can emerge. These rotational dynamics of the organic linkers are especially important due to their influence over properties such as gas adsorption and kinetics of guest release. To fully exploit linker rotation, such as in the form of molecular machines, it is necessary to engineer correlated linker dynamics to achieve their cooperative functional motion. Here, we show that for MIL-53, a topology with closely spaced rotors, the phenylene functionalization allows researchers to tune the rotors' steric environment, shifting linker rotation from completely static to rapid motions at frequencies above 100 MHz. For steric interactions that start to inhibit independent rotor motion, we identify for the first time the emergence of coupled rotation modes in linker dynamics. These findings pave the way for function-specific engineering of gear-like cooperative motion in MOFs.