Michael T. Ruggiero

Ice-ray pentagonal packing of pseudo-fivefold helices

While fivefold point symmetry is common in nature, fivefold spatial symmetry is seldom observed. Regular pentagons cannot tile a plane without leaving voids, and even the densest “ice-ray” packing is exceptionally rare. Fivefold helices are equally elusive. We report a small mole...

Raman Spectroscopic Characterization of the Benzene:Acetonitrile (3:1) Cocrystal Relevant to Titan, Saturn’s Moon

Abstract Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, hosts active organic chemistry and surface environments where small molecules are expected to crystallize as molecular minerals. Benzene and acetonitrile, both predicted to be present on Titan, were shown to form a thermodynamically stable b...

Influenceof Chalcogen Bonding on Lattice Dynamicsin Isostructural Molecular Solids

Abstract Solid-state lattice dynamics can significantly impact the expression of material properties in crystalline molecular materials, complicating crystal engineering efforts that approach materials design from a primarily static structural picture. While noncovalent interacti...