Organic Cocrystals in the NIR Window: Functional Design, Controlled Synthesis and Frontier Applications

• • Carbazole-based cocrystals with tunable CT degree achieve NIR photothermal conversion, with performance directly correlated to CT strength (CrystEngComm, 2022, 24: 4622–4628); this enables precise thermal-dose engineering for clinical hyperthermia and industrial NIR curing. • • TCNQ/TCNB cocrystals based on an orthocetamol backbone were solved by three-dimensional electron diffraction (Cryst Growth Des, 2022, 22: 1155–1163), providing an analytical route for nanocrystalline phases that cannot be resolved by conventional single-crystal XRD, critical for quality control of micro- and nanoscale cocrystal formulations. • • TTF–CA black polymorph synthesis is solvent-dependent, with mechanochemical and vapor digestion routes yielding distinct polymorphs confirmed by FT-IR and crystal packing analysis (Cryst Growth Des, 2014, 14: 91–100); this establishes solvent and processing history as first-order variables in conductivity and optical performance. • • Internal molecular motions in charge-transfer cocrystals govern photothermal conversion efficiency (Chem Mater, 2023, 35: 10009–10017), indicating that molecular dynamics—not static CT energetics alone—must be engineered to optimize heat generation for NIR-triggered applications.