Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, 800 E. Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, United States.
ACS Nano. 2020 Nov 24;14(11):15953-15961. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.0c07384. Epub 2020 Oct 29.
The organization of natural materials into hierarchical structures accounts for the amazing properties of many biological systems; however, translating the structural motifs present in such natural materials to synthetic systems remains difficult. Inspired by how nature creates materials, this work demonstrates that kinetically controlled sequential seeded growth is a general bottom-up strategy to prepare hierarchical inorganic crystals with distinct compositions and nanostructured forms. Specifically, 85 distinct hierarchical crystals with different shape-controlled features, compositions, and overall symmetries were readily achieved by altering the kinetics of metal deposition in sequential rounds of seeded growth. These modifications in the deposition kinetics were achieved through simple changes to the reaction conditions (, pH or halide concentration) and dictate whether concave or convex features are produced at specific seed locations, much in the manner that the changing atmospheric conditions account for the hierarchical and symmetrical structures of snow crystals. As such, this work provides a general paradigm for the bottom-up synthesis of hierarchical crystals regardless of inorganic material class.
将天然材料组织成层次结构是许多生物系统具有惊人性能的原因；然而，将这些天然材料中存在的结构图案转化为合成系统仍然很困难。受自然界制造材料方式的启发，这项工作表明，动力学控制的顺序种子生长是一种通用的自下而上的策略，可以用不同的组成和纳米结构形式来制备具有层次结构的无机晶体。具体来说，通过改变顺序种子生长中金属沉积的动力学，可以很容易地获得 85 种具有不同形状控制特征、组成和整体对称性的不同层次的晶体。通过简单地改变反应条件（pH 值或卤化物浓度）来实现这些沉积动力学的改变，并决定是否在特定种子位置产生凹面或凸面特征，这与不断变化的大气条件决定雪晶的层次和对称结构的方式非常相似。因此，这项工作为无论无机材料种类如何的层次晶体的自下而上合成提供了一个通用范例。
