Conspectus
The past two decades have witnessed a rapid
emergence of interest
in mechanochemistry–chemical and materials reactivity achieved
or sustained by the action of mechanical force–which has led
to application of mechanochemistry to almost all areas of modern chemical
and materials synthesis: from organic, inorganic, and organometallic
chemistry to enzymatic reactions, formation of metal–organic
frameworks, hybrid perovskites, and nanoparticle-based materials.
The recent success of mechanochemistry by ball milling has also raised
questions about the underlying mechanisms and has led to the realization
that the rational development and effective harnessing of mechanochemical
reactivity for cleaner and more efficient chemical manufacturing will
critically depend on establishing a mechanistic understanding of these
reactions. Despite their long history, the development of such a knowledge
framework for mechanochemical reactions is still incomplete. This
is in part due to the, until recently, unsurmountable challenge of
directly observing transformations taking place in a rapidly oscillating
or rotating milling vessel, with the sample being under the continuous
impact of milling media. A transformative change in mechanistic studies
of milling reactions was recently introduced through the first two
methodologies for real-time in situ monitoring based
on synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Introduced
in 2013 and 2014, the two new techniques have inspired a period of
tremendous method development, resulting also in new techniques for
mechanistic mechanochemical studies that are based on temperature
and/or pressure monitoring, extended X-ray fine structure (EXAFS),
and, latest, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The new
technologies available for real-time monitoring have now inspired
the development of experimental strategies and advanced data analysis
approaches for the identification and quantification of short-lived
reaction intermediates, the development of new mechanistic models,
as well as the emergence of more complex monitoring methodologies
based on two or three simultaneous monitoring approaches. The use
of these new opportunities has, in less than a decade, enabled the
first real-time observations of mechanochemical reaction kinetics
and the first studies of how the presence of additives, or other means
of modifying the mechanochemical reaction, influence reaction rates
and pathways. These studies have revealed multistep reaction mechanisms,
enabled the identification of autocatalysis, as well as identified
molecules and materials that have previously not been known or have
even been considered not possible to synthesize through conventional
approaches. Mechanistic studies through in situ powder
X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and Raman spectroscopy have highlighted the
formation of supramolecular complexes (for example, cocrystals) as
critical intermediates in organic and metal–organic synthesis
and have also been combined with isotope labeling strategies to provide
a deep...