journal menu
abstracts
Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) represent an exciting new type of porous organic materials, which are constructed with organic building units via strong covalent bonds.[1] The structure determination of COFs is challenging, due to the difficulty in growing sufficiently large crystals suitable for single crystal X-ray diffraction, and low resolution and peak broadening for powder X-ray diffraction. Crystal structures of COFs are typically determined by modelling building with the aid of geometry principles in reticular chemistry and powder X-ray diffraction data. Here, we report the single-crystal structure of a new COF (COF-320) determined by 3D rotation electron diffraction (RED),[2] a technique applied in this context for the first time. The RED method can collect an almost complete three-dimensional electron diffraction dataset, and is a useful technique for structure determination of micron- and nanosized single crystals. To minimize electron beam damage, the RED dataset was collected at 89 K. 3D reciprocal lattice of COF-320 was reconstructed from the ED frames using the RED - data processing software[2]. As the resolution of the RED data only reached 1.6 Å, the simulated annealing parallel tempering algorithm in the FOX software package [3] was used to find a starting molecular arrangement from the 3D RED data. Finally, the crystal structure of COF-320 was solved in the space group of I-42d and refined using the SHELXL software package. The single-crystal structure of COF-320 exhibits a 3D extended framework by linking the tetrahedral organic building blocks and biphenyl linkers through imine-bonds forming a highly porous 9-fold interwoven diamond net.
abstracts
Electron Crystallography is an important technique for studying micro- and nano-sized crystals[1]. Crystals considered as powder by X-ray diffraction behave as single crystals by electron diffraction. Recently we developed a new method, Rotation Electron Diffraction (RED) for three-dimensional diffraction data collection by combining electron beam tilt with goniometer tilt on a transmission electron microscope (TEM)[2]. Here we apply the RED method on an unknown oxide sample in a Ni-Se-Cl-O system, which may show special physical properties, for example magnetic properties. The crystals in the sample were less than a few micrometers in sizes. Powder X-ray diffraction patterns of the sample could not be indexed by existing known phases. The sample was thus studied by TEM. Five 3D RED datasets were collected from five crystals with different morphologies using the software package RED. The data processing was also performed using the software RED-processing. The unit cell and space groups of all the five phases were obtained using RED and the structures of four of five phases were solved. Nearly all peaks in the powder X-ray diffraction pattern could be indexed using these five phases. To conclude, five phases from a powder sample have been identified using RED. RED is a powerful method for phase identification of multiphasic samples with nano-sized crystals.
abstracts
Zeolites have been extensively studied over many years due to their widely applications in catalysis, ion exchange, adsorption, and separation.[1] Knowing the structure of zeolite is important for understanding their properties and predicting possible applications of such materials. Structure determination of zeolites has remains challenging, as submicro- and nano-sized crystals are often obtained. Here, we elucidate a novel germanate-based zeolite PKU-14 with a 3D 12*12*12-ring channel system. The structure was solved by combing high-resolution PXRD, rotation electron diffraction method, NMR and IR spectroscopy. Ordered Ge4O4 vacancies inside the [46612] cages has been found in PKU-14, where a unique water dimer was located at the vacancies and played a structure-directing role.
