Researchers in Italy say that mechanochemical reactions could be used to overcome the problem of obtaining crystals of reaction products for characterisation. 

Dario Braga and colleagues at Universitá degli Studi di Bologna, Italy have given fresh insight into solvent-free ways to make novel crystalline materials of organometallic and coordination compounds. 

Braga and his team explained how mechanochemical reactions, involving the mechanical mixing of solids and exposing a crystalline solid to a vapour, can be exploited to help chemists make crystals. 'These routes provide alternative and, at times, unique ways to prepare a variety of crystalline materials from coordination networks to hydrogen-bonded adducts,' said Braga.

Ruth M Needham