On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 12:50 PM, Geoffrey Hutchison
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On Nov 7, 2011, at 12:45 PM, David Lonie wrote:
>
>>> I'm open to suggestions -- I'd like to include as many molecular crystals 
>>> without picking up carbonates or carbides.
>>
>> I see what you're saying. Perhaps we could screen for elements besides
>> C,H,N,O,S -- If all atoms are common organic elements, it is probably
>> just a molecular packing and we can stick with the primitive
>> structure, but if there are, say, transition metals, present then the
>> full cell is probably of interest.
>
> That doesn't work so well. Consider ferrocene, or any organometallic 
> (molecular) catalyst. This is why I recommend a certain number of carbons in 
> the primitive cell -> probably a molecular crystal.

I guess my question is: when is the full cell of interest, and when is
unfilled cell desired? The way I'm thinking about it, if it is just a
simple organic molecule then the unfilled cell will suffice. If
there's anything else going on besides VDW/H-bonding in a simple
organic crystal, then I'd want to see the full structure (this
includes organometallics).

As you mention, carbonates etc will pose a problem otherwise. I'd
rather make the mistake of filling a cell when the unfilled cell is
sufficient then the other way around.

Is the problem with a filled molecular crystal cell just that it's
difficult to see what's going on (too much info)? If so, I think that
some of the visualization tricks I've been working on for
intercellular bonding may be a better solution, instead of presenting
an unfilled cell. (I have plans to add improved intercell bond
visualization in the coming months. I'll post an update once I have
some stable code.)

Dave

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