Sapnik, AF orcid.org/0000-0001-6200-4208, Sun, C orcid.org/0000-0001-7307-5685, Laulainen, JEM orcid.org/0000-0003-0596-1663 et al. (6 more authors) (2023) Mapping nanocrystalline disorder within an amorphous metal–organic framework. Communications Chemistry, 6. 92. ISSN 2399-3669
Abstract
Intentionally disordered metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) display rich functional behaviour. However, the characterisation of their atomic structures remains incredibly challenging. X-ray pair distribution function techniques have been pivotal in determining their average local structure but are largely insensitive to spatial variations in the structure. Fe-BTC (BTC = 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate) is a nanocomposite MOF, known for its catalytic properties, comprising crystalline nanoparticles and an amorphous matrix. Here, we use scanning electron diffraction to first map the crystalline and amorphous components to evaluate domain size and then to carry out electron pair distribution function analysis to probe the spatially separated atomic structure of the amorphous matrix. Further Bragg scattering analysis reveals systematic orientational disorder within Fe-BTC’s nanocrystallites, showing over 10° of continuous lattice rotation across single particles. Finally, we identify candidate unit cells for the crystalline component. These independent structural analyses quantify disorder in Fe-BTC at the critical length scale for engineering composite MOF materials.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/V044907/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 May 2023 11:43 |
Last Modified: | 16 Jan 2025 15:47 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s42004-023-00891-9 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:199105 |