Morphology Engineering of Organic Crystals With the Assistance of “Tailor-Made” Growth Inhibitors

Retardation of growth of organic crystals in the presence of additives in solution has been investigated in terms of their crystal structures and the stereochemistry of the additives. A simple correlation has been established between affected directions of growth and structure of the additive. This mecnanism has been successfully applied for monitoring, in a controlled manner, the morphology of organic crystals; this is illustrated for benzamides and benzoic acids. Furthermore, the absolute configuration of polar crystals and chiral molecules has been directly assigned. This is illustrated for the polar crystal of tr-cinnamoyl alanine, and for the molecule of threonine, through morphological changes this molecule induces in the centrosymmetric crystal of serine.