Plastically Bendable Crystals of Flufenamic Acid Form III

Abstract

Bendable organic crystal is a burgeoning research field due to interesting phenomenon and broad application prospects. Here we report a plastic bendable pharmaceutical crystal, flufenamic acid (FFA) form Ⅲ crystal. The crystal exhibits plastic bending when the force is applied on (100) face. The column-like structure and the slip planes among them are the basic features responsible for the exceptional plasticity. The spatially resolved atomic-level studies via X-ray diffraction and micro-Raman reveal the structural perturbations in FFA crystal after bending, illustrating that the packing in each “column” is also critical for the plastic bending, which contributes to the exploration of plastic bending mechanism and inspires the design of flexible organic crystal materials.