Soft and organic crystals are a diverse group of materials with connections to biological, environmental, and industrial processes with a wide range of applications, from pharmaceuticals to flexible electronics. Understanding the details of their crystallization pathways is essential to developing the ability to controllably synthesize new materials and structures with targeted properties.
A new review article, published in Nature Reviews Materials, offers a broad perspective on assembly of a range of materials, filling a need for a comprehensive review of the field.
While classical theories of how crystals form and grow have been long established for a range of materials, they provide an incomplete picture of crystallization. Many soft and organic materials form via non-classical pathways that lead to substantially different final crystal structures.
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