Electron Diffraction on Flash-Frozen Cowlesite Reveals the Structure of the First Two-Dimensional Natural Zeolite
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2020
Citazione:
Electron Diffraction on Flash-Frozen Cowlesite Reveals the Structure of the First Two-Dimensional Natural Zeolite / E. Mugnaioli, A.E. Lanza, G. Bortolozzi, L. Righi, M. Merlini, V. Cappello, L. Marini, A. Athanassiou, M. Gemmi. - In: ACS CENTRAL SCIENCE. - ISSN 2374-7951. - 6:9(2020 Sep 23), pp. 1578-1586. [10.1021/acscentsci.9b01100]
Abstract:
Cowlesite, ideally Ca6Al12Si18O60·36H2O, is to date the only natural zeolite whose structure could not be determined by X-ray methods. In this paper, we present the ab initio structure determination of this mineral obtained by three-dimensional (3D) electron diffraction data collected from single-crystal domains of a few hundreds of nanometers. The structure of cowlesite consists of an alternation of rigid zeolitic layers and low-density interlayers supported by water and cations. This makes cowlesite the only two-dimensional (2D) zeolite known in nature. When cowlesite gets in contact with a transmission electron microscope vacuum, a phase transition to a conventional 3D zeolite framework occurs in few seconds. The original cowlesite structure could be preserved only by adopting a cryo-plunging sample preparation protocol usually employed for macromolecular samples. Such a protocol allows the investigation by 3D electron diffraction of very hydrated and very beam-sensitive inorganic materials, which were previously considered intractable by transmission electron microscopy crystallographic methods.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Elenco autori:
E. Mugnaioli, A.E. Lanza, G. Bortolozzi, L. Righi, M. Merlini, V. Cappello, L. Marini, A. Athanassiou, M. Gemmi
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