Heterogeneous nucleation of organic crystals mediated by single-molecule templates

Mechanistic details on how a molecular crystal nucleates on a surface remain limited because it is difficult to probe rare events at the molecular scale. Now, single-molecule real-time transmission electron microscopy shows that a single-molecule template on the surface of carbon nanohorns can nucle...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2012-10, Vol.11 (10), p.877-881
Main Authors: Harano, Koji, Homma, Tatsuya, Niimi, Yoshiko, Koshino, Masanori, Suenaga, Kazu, Leibler, Ludwik, Nakamura, Eiichi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/1023
639/301/357
Biomaterials
Carbon
Chemical Sciences
Chemistry and Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Crystal structure
Crystallization
Crystals
letter
Material chemistry
Materials Science
Nanocomposites
Nanomaterials
Nanostructure
Nanotechnology
Nucleation
Optical and Electronic Materials
Organic compounds
Organic crystals
Thin films
Transmission electron microscopy
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Summary:Mechanistic details on how a molecular crystal nucleates on a surface remain limited because it is difficult to probe rare events at the molecular scale. Now, single-molecule real-time transmission electron microscopy shows that a single-molecule template on the surface of carbon nanohorns can nucleate the crystallization of two organic compounds, and that the mechanism is reminiscent of a two-step nucleation process in solution. Fundamental understanding of how crystals of organic molecules nucleate on a surface remains limited 1 , 2 , 3 because of the difficulty of probing rare events at the molecular scale. Here we show that single-molecule templates on the surface of carbon nanohorns can nucleate the crystallization of two organic compounds from a supersaturated solution by mediating the formation of disordered and mobile molecular nanoclusters on the templates. Single-molecule real-time transmission electron microscopy indicates that each nanocluster consists of a maximum of approximately 15 molecules, that there are fewer nanoclusters than crystals in solution, and that in the absence of templates physisorption, but not crystal formation, occurs. Our findings suggest that template-induced heterogeneous nucleation mechanistically resembles two-step homogeneous nucleation 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 .
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/nmat3408