Symmetry breaking

Term · Chemistry · MLC-T-CHM-011727

The loss, in one crystal polymorph of a polymer, of symmetry elements that appear in other polymorphs or in the minimum-energy conformation of the isolated molecule. Many of the missing elements are intramolecular, so the chain departs from its ideal crystal conformation and the equivalence postulate no longer holds. Polymorphs showing it are usually the low-temperature forms, which pack most efficiently.

Table 1. Record
Identifier	MLC-T-CHM-011727
Field	Chemistry
Subject	Polymer
References	PAC, 2011, 83, 1831. 'Definitions of terms relating to crystalline polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2011)' on page 1847 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-10-11-13)
See also	Crystal polymorph; Ideal crystalline chain conformation

Record as JSON

{
  "id": "MLC-T-CHM-011727",
  "term": "Symmetry breaking",
  "field": "Chemistry",
  "definition": "The loss, in one crystal polymorph of a polymer, of symmetry elements that appear in other polymorphs or in the minimum-energy conformation of the isolated molecule. Many of the missing elements are intramolecular, so the chain departs from its ideal crystal conformation and the equivalence postulate no longer holds. Polymorphs showing it are usually the low-temperature forms, which pack most efficiently.",
  "subject": "Polymer",
  "see_also": [
    "crystal polymorph",
    "ideal crystalline chain conformation"
  ],
  "references": [
    "PAC, 2011, 83, 1831. 'Definitions of terms relating to crystalline polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2011)' on page 1847 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-10-11-13)"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/chemistry/symmetry-breaking/"
}

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