Growth habits of several polar organic crystals with a structure A-C6H
4-D such as 4 - amino - 4' - nitrodiphenyl sulfide (ANDS), o - dicyano
vinyl anisole (DIVA), N - 4 - nitrophenyl - (L) - prolinol(NPP) and 2-
methyl-4-nitroaniline (MNA) depend strongly on the solvents from which
they are grown. An incorporation model of polar growth units has been
proposed to qualitatively explain the observed growth forms, which wa
s based on: (1) the influence of the interaction between the solvent m
olecules and the growth units on the structural forms of the growth un
its; and (2) the interaction between the solvent molecules and the gro
wth interfaces, particularly two polar faces for polar organic crystal
s. Since these interactions strongly affect the incorporation rates of
the growth units on the positive and negative faces, a variety of the
crystal habits such as polar growth, needle habits or platelet forms
appear, and thus a good explanation for the observed habits in various
solvents is expected to be obtained.