Researchers from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Science Vinko Nemec, Katarina Lisac, Nikola Bedeković, Luka Fotović, Vladimir Stilinović and Dominik Cinčić published a Highlight paper Crystal engineering strategies towards halogen-bonded metal–organic multi-component solids: salts, cocrystals and salt cocrystals in the prominent journal CrystEngComm (IF=3,117) published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Due to high marks awarded by the journal’s peer reviewers, the paper has been featured on the journal’s title page and included in the Editor’s Collection of significant papers on the topic of halogen bonds.

This highlight paper provides a systematic and extensive overview (over 280 bibliographic references) of the state of the art in crystal engineering of metal-organic multi-component solids based on halogen bonds, which includes salts, cocrystals and salt cocrystals comprising only neutral molecules and cocrystals comprising both neutral molecules and ionic constituents. Apart from providing a critical overview of previous works, the paper also describes general strategies that can be applied for designing metal-organic multi-component solids in which molecules are connected with halogen bonds and proposes potential directions for future research in this fascinating area.

The paper has been published in open access and is available here.