Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11564-4
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (Molecular Technology CREST) [JPMJCR14L4]
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (SENTAN) [JPMJSN16B1]
- JSPS [JP17H05355]
- Kazato Research Foundation
- 'Nanotechnology Platform' - MEXT [12024046]
- MEXT
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Chemical reactions in solution almost always take place via a series of minute intermediates that are often in rapid equilibrium with each other, and hence hardly characterizable at the level of atomistic molecular structures. We found that single-molecule atomic-resolution real-time electron microscopic (SMART-EM) video imaging provides a unique methodology for capturing and analyzing the minute reaction intermediates, as illustrated here for single prenucleation clusters (PNCs) in the reaction mixture of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Specifically, we found two different types of PNCs are involved in the formation of MOF-2 and MOF-5 from a mixture of zinc nitrate and benzene dicarboxylates at 95 degrees C and 120 degrees C, respectively. SMART-EM identified a small amount of 1-nm-sized cube and cube-like PNCs in the MOF-5 synthesis, but not in the MOF-2 synthesis. In the latter, we instead found only linear and square PNCs, suggesting that the MOF-2/-5 bifurcation takes place at the PNC stage.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available