GROWTH OF ANTHRACENE-CRYSTALS BY GEL AIDED SOLUTION TECHNIQUE

Anthracene (C14H10) is one of the organic molecular crystals which exh ibits peculiar optical and electronic properties. It forms colourless monoclinic prismatic crystals with melting point 218 degrees C in the space group C-2h(5) - P2(1)/a having unit cell dimensions a = 0.856, b = 0.604, c = 1.116 nm, alpha = 90 degrees, beta = 124 and gamma = 90 (SILINSH: 1980). Each unit cell has two molecules and a well defined c leavage plane, the ab plane. The volume of the unit cell is about 0.47 42 nm(3) with 188 electrons per unit cell. Attempts have been made to grow single crystals of anthracene long back (Ross, 1950, METTE and PI CK 1953, LIPPSETT. 1957, ROBINSON and SCOTT, 1967, PRASAD, 1989). Howe ver, the crystals obtained were not of high quality. Here, we report t he growth of well-faceted anthracene crystals by gel aided solution te chnique (RAJENDRA BABU et al., 1997).