Crystal Design of High Performance Pigments

With few exceptions, pigments exist as crystalline solids, and all of their essential properties depend on stmctural and morphological features associated with the solid state. For an efficient design of high-performance pigments it is necessary to analyze and to understand the molecular reasons behind those solid properties which give rise to the technical performance of these materials (Table 8.1). 

Molecular Crystal properties Solid Technical performance 

Crystal structure Particle size Cohesion Thermal stability 

Polarizability Crystal habit -potential Color/optical properties 

Constitution Surface structure Conductivity Dispersion rheology 

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I 8 Crystal Design of High Performance Pigments adsorption... 

Creative concepts in crystal engineering make use of supramolecular synthons to define specific interactions in molecular solids, which may be employed to design crystal packings The synthon approach has been used to produce close packed structures, and, on the contrary, to build open network structures. In the packing motifs of high performance pigments several types of specific interactions (synthons) can be identified. 

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