Welcome to the site of the Chemical Crystallography Laboratory, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

In the last decades supramolecular chemistry is in the front of research interest with the aim to understand chemistry beyond the covalent bond. Supramolecular chemistry is a highly interdisciplinary field of science covering chemical, physical and biological features. Crystal engineering, mastering the macroscopical properties of the material can be performed by fine tuning of structural properties. Our aim is the manipulation of supramolecular packing architecture with all the applications implied in the fields of solid state chemistry, like pharmaceuticals, catalysis and material science, including organic, inorganic, bio-organic and bio-inorganic compounds and play role in chemistry at interfaces, transport phenomena, polymer sciences, molecular sensors, molecular switches, etc. Molecular self-assembly also allows the construction of larger structures such as micelles, membranes, vesicles, liquid crystals. Most of the bottom-up approaches to nanotechnology are based on supramolecular chemistry. Biological systems are often the inspiration for supramolecular research as study of non-covalent interactions is crucial in understanding many biological processes. Exploring the secondary interactions is important to the development of new pharmaceutical therapies by understanding the interactions at a drug binding site, in protein-protein interactions and also in drug encapsulation and targeted release mechanism.

Our work is performed in order of deeper understanding of intermolecular interactions and their effect on the arrangement of molecules in the solid phase influenced by temperature and pressure. Increasing knowledge on the principles of supramolecular chemistry contributes to the crystal engineering and prediction ability and brings us closer to be able to prepare novel materials with desired properties.

An additional aspect is the involvement of students and young researchers to the projects disseminating crystallographic learning.