MolCrysKit: A Topology-Aware Toolkit for Bridging Experimental Molecular-Crystal Structures and Simulation-Ready Modeling

Modeling molecular crystals requires addressing two main challenges: (i) maintaining the integrity of chemically bonded molecular units during structural operations and (ii) translating experimental crystallographic data, which often include disorder and missing hydrogen atoms, into fully resolved, simulation-ready models. Existing materials modeling toolkits are largely atom-centric and thus face limitations for molecular crystals, where chemically bonded entities must be treated as rigid topological units within a periodic lattice. Here we present MolCrysKit, a Python toolkit designed to automate topology-aware conversion and manipulation of experimental crystallographic information files (CIFs) into computationally viable molecular crystal models. MolCrysKit implements three complementary strategies: (i) a graph-theoretic approach for resolving disorder, (ii) a topology-preserving algorithm for surface slab generation, and (iii) a chemical-environment-aware scheme for reconstructing missing hydrogen atoms. The toolkit provides an interface that supports integration with higher-level automated workflows, enabling reproducible transformations of incomplete or ambiguous crystallographic data into simulation-ready models. Our design enables artificial intelligence (AI)-driven pipelines, particularly those utilizing large language model (LLM) agents, to reliably construct chemically consistent simulation systems from crystallographically ambiguous or structurally incomplete experimental crystal structures.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling
Published
2026-04-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.6c00168
Primary Topic
Machine Learning in Materials Science
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

MolCrysKit: A Topology-Aware Toolkit for Bridging Experimental Molecular-Crystal Structures and Simulation-Ready Modeling

Wei‐Xiong Zhang, Ming‐Yu Guo
Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling
Machine Learning in Materials Science
article

MolCrysKit: A Topology-Aware Toolkit for Bridging Experimental Molecular-Crystal Structures and Simulation-Ready Modeling

Wei‐Xiong Zhang, Ming‐Yu Guo
article en

Abstract

Modeling molecular crystals requires addressing two main challenges: (i) maintaining the integrity of chemically bonded molecular units during structural operations and (ii) translating experimental crystallographic data, which often include disorder and missing hydrogen atoms, into fully resolved, simulation-ready models. Existing materials modeling toolkits are largely atom-centric and thus face limitations for molecular crystals, where chemically bonded entities must be treated as rigid topological units within a periodic lattice. Here we present MolCrysKit, a Python toolkit designed to automate topology-aware conversion and manipulation of experimental crystallographic information files (CIFs) into computationally viable molecular crystal models. MolCrysKit implements three complementary strategies: (i) a graph-theoretic approach for resolving disorder, (ii) a topology-preserving algorithm for surface slab generation, and (iii) a chemical-environment-aware scheme for reconstructing missing hydrogen atoms. The toolkit provides an interface that supports integration with higher-level automated workflows, enabling reproducible transformations of incomplete or ambiguous crystallographic data into simulation-ready models. Our design enables artificial intelligence (AI)-driven pipelines, particularly those utilizing large language model (LLM) agents, to reliably construct chemically consistent simulation systems from crystallographically ambiguous or structurally incomplete experimental crystal structures.

Journal of Chemical Information and ModelingVol. 66(9)
Sun Yat-sen University (CN), State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou Science and Technology Program key projects
Openalex Percentile: Top 20%
Machine Learning in Materials Science
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MolCrysKit: A Topology-Aware Toolkit for Bridging Experimental Molecular-Crystal Structures and Simulation-Ready Modeling — Wei‐Xiong Zhang, Ming‐Yu Guo · Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS