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Oxamide, see Figure 1, was one of the our original investigations into hydrogen
bonding in solids through inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectroscopy.
Each oxamide molecule contributes to eight hydrogen bonds; two carbonyls which
involve in two hydrogen bonds each, and two amines whose hydrogens also form
hydrogen bonds. In the crystal a planar, two dimensional network is formed.
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Figure 1: Oxamide has eight hydrogen bonds,
two on each carbonyl and two for each amine.
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Oxamide's two-dimensional crystal structure was advantageous in many ways. Since each molecule is highly
involved in intramolecular interactions, oxamide provides an excellent test of the isolated molecule
approximation. Of course, in order to really test the isolated molecule, we must test methods with
go beyond it. Since the network is only two dimensional (opposed to three dimensional) we are
able to overcome to isolated molecule approximation without overcoming our computational abilities.
Furthermore, while intramolecular interactions are prevalent, each molecule is hydrogen bonded to only
four others.
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Figure 2: Large view of oxamide two-dimensional
netowrk.
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