Small molecules consisting of light-, few-electron atoms were the first species beyond atoms to yield to quantum-mechanical methods. Similarly, crystals of small light-atom molecules have served as most useful test cases of charge density mapping. The small number of core electrons in first-row atoms enhances the relative contribution of valence electron scattering to the diffraction pattern. Early studies, done just after automated diffractometers became widely available, were concerned with molecular crystals such as uracil (Stewart and Jensen 1967), s-triazine (Coppens 1967), oxalic acid dihydrate (Coppens et al. 1969), decaborane (Dietrich and Scheringer 1978), fumaramic acid (Hirshfeld 1971), glycine (Almlof et al. 1973), and tetraphenylbutatriene (Berkovitch-Yellin and Leiserowitz 1976). While thermal motion is often pronounced in molecular crystals, advances in low-temperature data collection have done much to alleviate this disadvantage. In recent years, subliquid-nitrogen cooling techniques have been increasingly applied. Among the most interesting aspects of molecular crystals are the influence of intermolecular interactions on the electronic structure. Physically meaningful Coulombic parameters pertinent to a molecule in a condensed environment can be obtained from the diffraction analysis, and can be used in the modeling of macromolecules. The enhancement of the electrostatic moments relative to those of the isolated species has been noted in chapter 7. But, beyond these considerations, molecular crystals are important in their own right. For example, crystals of aromatic molecules substituted with π-electron donor and acceptor groups are among the most strongly nonlinear optical solids known, considerably exceeding the nonlinearity of inorganic crystals such as potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP); while mixed-valence organic components of low-dimensional solids can become superconducting at low temperatures. The relation between such properties of molecular crystals and their charge distribution provides a continuing impetus for further study. The suitability of light-atom crystals for charge density analysis can be understood in terms of the relative importance of core electron scattering. As the perturbation of the core electrons by the chemical environment is beyond the reach of practically all experimental studies, the frozen-core approximation is routinely used. It assumes the intensity of the core electron scattering to be invariable, while the valence scattering is affected by the chemical environment, as discussed in chapter 3.
Experimental Studies of Moisture Transport in Grain Material and Individual Grain
