New Polymorphs of the Phase-Change Material Sodium Acetate

Two new polymorphs of the phase-change material sodium acetate were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. A tetragonal form was found first. It converted to a orthorhombic form after measurement of a single crystal of the tetragonal form at 100 K and subsequent warming to ambient temperature. Hirshfeld surface fingerprint plots show the different packing environments of the two new compared to the two known orthorhombic polymorphs Forms I and II. The accuracy and precision of the structures were improved compared to conventional independent atom model refinement through the use of aspherical scattering factors of the invariom database. We think that the layered nature of all sodium acetate forms, and the thereby limited (“quantized”) availability of vibrational modes, is related to the phenomenon of supersaturation, which is connected to its phase-change properties.