Concomitance, Reversibility, and Switching Ability of Centrosymmetric and Non-Centrosymmetric Crystal Forms: Polymorphism in an Organic Nonlinear Optical Material

Reversibility between two concomitant polymorphs and their switching ability is demonstrated for the novel organic nonlinear optical (NLO) material Z-3-(3-methoxyphynyl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)acrylonitrile. The appearances of their concomitant as well as exclusive polymorphic forms were discovered upon systematic crystallization experiments using various solvents. Determination of X-ray crystal structures confirmed that the polymorphs crystallize in centrosymmetric (P21/n) and non-centrosymmetric (Fdd2) space groups. A search using the Cambridge Structural Database revealed that there exist only 10 such polymorphic pairs. Reversible phase transitions and the switching ability between the polymorphs can be achieved via both heat and solvents as stimuli. Structural analysis confirmed that the polymorphs have two-dimensional similarity. Further, quantitative and qualitative analysis of interaction energies based on the UNI force field and energy frameworks indicate that they possess very similar energies, althoug...