Reversed crystal growth of RHO zeolite imidazolate framework (ZIF)
Abstract
RHO zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF), Zn1.33(O.OH)0.33(nim)1.167(pur), crystals with a rhombic dodecahedral morphology were synthesized by a solvothermal process. The growth of the crystals was studied over time using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analyses, and a reversed crystal growth mechanism was revealed. Initially, precursor materials joined together to form disordered aggregates, which then underwent surface recrystallization forming a core–shell structure, in which a disordered core is encased in a layer of denser, less porous crystal. When the growth continued, the shell became less and less porous, until it was a layer of true single crystal. The crystallization then extended from the surface to the core over a six-week period until, eventually, true single crystals were formed.
Citation
Self , K , Telfer , M , Greer , H F & Zhou , W 2015 , ' Reversed crystal growth of RHO zeolite imidazolate framework (ZIF) ' , Chemistry - A European Journal , vol. 21 , no. 52 , pp. 19090–19095 . https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201503437
Publication
Chemistry - A European Journal
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0947-6539Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright 2014 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
KS and MT would like to thank the University of St Andrews for the studentship, Dr Jürgen Kahr and Professor Paul Wright for their help with this work, Mr Ross Blackley for his help on using the SEM and TEM microscopes and Mrs Sylvia Williamson for her assistance with the N2 adsorption tests. HFG would like to thank EPSRC for the funding (EP/K015540/1). WZZ thanks EPSRC for the financial support to purchase the FEG SEM (EP/F019580/1).Collections
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