title: Giant negative linear compressibility in zinc dicyanoaurate.
abstract: The counterintuitive phenomenon of negative linear compressibility (NLC) is a highly desirable but rare property exploitable in the development of artificial muscles, actuators and next-generation pressure sensors. In all cases, material performance is directly related to the magnitude of intrinsic NLC response. Here we show the molecular framework material zinc(II) dicyanoaurate(I), Zn[Au(CN)(2)](2), exhibits the most extreme and persistent NLC behaviour yet reported: under increasing hydrostatic pressure its crystal structure expands in one direction at a rate that is an order of magnitude greater than both the typical contraction observed for common engineering materials and also the anomalous expansion in established NLC candidates. This extreme behaviour arises from the honeycomb-like structure of Zn[Au(CN)(2)](2) coupling volume reduction to uniaxial expansion, and helical Au…Au 'aurophilic' interactions accommodating abnormally large linear strains by functioning as supramolecular springs.
authors: Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford, UK.
authors: Andrew B
authors: AB
authors: Cairns
authors: Jadna
authors: J
authors: Catafesta
authors: Claire
authors: C
authors: Levelut
authors: Jérôme
authors: J
authors: Rouquette
authors: Arie
authors: A
authors: van der Lee
authors: Lars
authors: L
authors: Peters
authors: Amber L
authors: AL
authors: Thompson
authors: Vladimir
authors: V
authors: Dmitriev
authors: Julien
authors: J
authors: Haines
authors: Andrew L
authors: AL
authors: Goodwin