Redefining the Minimal Editable Unit of Supramolecular Synthons: A 1→2 Lattice‐Editing Strategy in Ternary Multicomponent Crystals
Zheng Lin, Honglei Xia, Min Li, Ruihui Wang, Ying Wang, Xiaoyu Feng, Mingjing Tang, Yuan Zhang, Qinghua Zhang · 2026
Read Redefining the Minimal Editable Unit of Supramolecular Synthons: A 1→2 Lattice‐Editing Strategy in Ternary Multicomponent Crystals by Zheng Lin, Honglei Xia, Min Li, Ruihui Wang, Ying Wang, Xiaoyu Feng, Mingjing Tang, Yuan Zhang, Qinghua Zhang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13542403.txt.
Description
Lin and co-authors report a crystal design strategy, published in 2026, for swapping parts of a crystal without wrecking its layout. Crystals built from several components can be tuned for optics and electronics. The standard trick swaps one component for one other, which limits the range of change and often breaks the lattice. Borrowing an idea from molecule editing, the team asked what the smallest editable unit of a crystal really is. Their answer: a small local cluster, not a single component.
Using that insight, they replaced one cluster with two components in a three-part crystal. The swap kept the original pattern of interactions intact. That breaks the old one-for-one rule and allows uneven substitutions. The wider design space could yield crystals with properties that even swaps cannot reach. The work reframes how chemists think about editing solids.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Zheng Lin, Honglei Xia, Min Li, Ruihui Wang, Ying Wang, Xiaoyu Feng, Mingjing Tang, Yuan Zhang, Qinghua Zhang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 21 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |