issue contents
April 2005 issue
research papers
The structure of hexamethylbenzene below the first-order phase transition at 117 K has been obtained using neutron powder diffraction, over 70 years after the first report of the room-temperature X-ray crystal structure of this ubiquitous laboratory chemical. The low-temperature structure may be considered as a high-density modification of the room-temperature structure, resulting from decreased thermally induced disorder.