Polynator: a tool to identify and quantitatively evaluate polyhedra and other shapes in crystal structures

Abstract

Polynator is a Python program capable of identifying coordination polyhedra, molecules and other shapes in crystal structures and evaluating their distortions. Distortions are quantified by fitting the vertices of a model to a selected set of atoms. In contrast to earlier programs, models can be deformable, which allows them to represent a point group or a range of shapes such as the set of all trigonal prisms, rather than a specific, rigid shape such as the equilateral trigonal prism. The program comes with a graphical user interface and is freely available. This paper discusses its working principle and illustrates a number of applications.