Mechanically Cutting Organic Single-Crystal Films

Most organic molecular crystals exhibit brittleness and are prone to fragmentation when subjected to even mild mechanical forces. Here we reported one new top-down strategy using ordinary scissors to cut for the desired and precise shapes like semicircles, triangles, and pentagons with retention of macroscopic integrity. This unconventional yet simple shape editing approach leverages the chiral asymmetry effect and the steric effect, leading to high asymmetry and enhanced energy dissipation capability during the shear force-driven lattice slippage process. These resulting bulk crystals exhibit good elasticity and allow for photo-induced single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SCSC) modulus enhancement through molecular rearrangement for improved symmetry. Within a broader perspective, this study highlights the strategic integration of top-down and bottom-up approaches, rendering the organic molecular crystals with desirable anisotropic properties and enabling their precise and straightforward further processability.