title: On the influence of thermal motion on the crystal structures and polymorphism of even n-alkanes.
abstract: Discrepancies between the crystal structures of short n-alkanes as obtained from experiment and as obtained from molecular mechanics tended to worsen at longer chain lengths. The same holds for the relative stabilities of the two experimentally observed polymorphs. In this paper it is argued that the discrepancies are caused by thermal effects, and that the triclinic polymorph is the most stable polymorph for all chain lengths at 0 K. A phase transition is predicted but has yet to be found experimentally. Current force fields cannot reproduce the experimental observations without explicit introduction of temperature by means of molecular dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Solid State Chemistry, University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jacco
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van de Streek
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verwer
authors.forename: Piet
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bennema
authors.forename: Elias
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vlieg