TY - JOUR A1 - Bhattacharya, Biswajit A1 - Michalchuk, Adam A1 - Silbernagl, Dorothee A1 - Rautenberg, Max A1 - Schmid, Thomas A1 - Feiler, Torvid A1 - Reimann, K. A1 - Ghalgaoui, A. A1 - Sturm, Heinz A1 - Paulus, B. A1 - Emmerling, Franziska T1 - A Mechanistic Perspective on Plastically Flexible Coordination Polymers N2 - Mechanical flexibility in single crystals of covalently bound materials is a fascinating and poorly understood phenomenon. We present here the first example of a plastically flexible one-dimensional (1D) coordination polymer. The compound [Zn(m-Cl)2(3,5-dichloropyridine)2]n is flexible over two crystallographic faces. Remarkably, the single crystal remains intact when bent to 1808. A combination of microscopy, diffraction, and spectroscopic studies have been used to probe the structural response of the crystal lattice to mechanical bending. Deformation of the covalent polymer chains does not appear to be responsible for the observed macroscopic bending. Instead, our results suggest that mechanical bending occurs by displacement of the coordination polymer chains. Based on experimental and theoretical evidence, we propose a new model for mechanical flexibility in 1D coordination polymers. Moreover, our calculations propose a cause of the different mechanical properties of this compound and a structurally similar elastic material KW - Coordination polymer KW - Flexible crystals KW - Mechanical properties KW - Plastic deformation PY - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-504755 VL - 59 IS - 14 SP - 5557 EP - 5561 PB - Wiley-VCH AN - OPUS4-50475 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -