Chemistry Central Journal themed issue: Current Topics in Chemical Crystallography

Preamble It was a pleasure to be invited to act as editor for this themed issue in which we aim to assemble a series of invited and submitted papers which provide a look at some of the current research efforts defining the subject of “Chemical Crystallography”. Of course, the timing of this is to make a positive contribution to the celebration of this special year, 2014 the UNESCO Year of Crystallography. I opted to use this generic title since I have always considered that it suitably described the kind of research in which I have been involved throughout my academic career – using crystallography to study chemistry! This view stems from the time I began my PhD, in the Chemistry Department of King’s College London. I joined a small group, supervised by Mr Ralph Hulme, and on my “recommended” reading list was the core text book entitled “Chemical Crystallography”, written by C.W.Bunn [1]. The first edition was published in 1945, and although it contained chapters on other facets of crystallography, a number of others did focus on topics of relevance to chemistry, and it provided many good links between the two areas. It is amusing to note that a Google search using this title does not yield a specific dictionary entry for the subject of “Chemical Crystallography” in Wikipedia, although many University “Chemical Crystallography Groups” are identified, and it conveniently links to the website of the Chemical Crystallography Group of the British Crystallographic Association, and through this, to many other National sites. The search also links to a site from which one can download a free copy of Charles Bunn’s book! My PhD, which involved the preparation and structure determination of solid forms, which we called “packing complexes”, prepared by crystallizing antimony trichloride from some organic molecules, such as dibenzyl and stilbene,