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Probing surface structure on two-dimensional metal-organic layers to understand suppressed interlayer packing

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Abstract

Two-dimensional metal-organic layers (MOLs) from alternatively connected benzene-tribenzoate ligands and Zr6(μ3-O)4(μ3-OH)4 or Hf6(μ3-O)4(μ3-OH)4 secondary building units can be prepared in gram scale via solvothermal synthesis. However, the reason why the monolayers did not pack to form thick crystals is unknown. Here we investigated the surface structure of the MOLs by a combination of sum-frequency generation spectroscopy, nanoscale infrared microscopy, atomic force microscopy, aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, and compositional analysis. We found a partial coverage of the monolayer surface by dangling tricarboxylate ligands, which prevent packing of the monolayers. This finding illustrates low-density surface modification as a strategy to prepare new two-dimensional materials with a high percentage of exposed surface.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge funding support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2016YFA0200702), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21671162 and No. 21721001), the XMU Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates and NFFTBS (No. J1310024). We thank Zhe Li and Rongkun Lin from Xiamen University for experimental support, and Bingjie Wang, Anna Carisson from Thermo Fischer Scientific for TEM imaging.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IChem, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Peican Chen, Yi Liu, Xuefu Hu, Xiaolin Liu, En-Ming You, Xudong Qian, Jiawei Chen, Liangping Xiao, Lingyun Cao, Xinxing Peng, Zhongming Zeng, Yibing Jiang, Song-Yuan Ding, Honggang Liao, Zhaohui Wang & Cheng Wang

  2. School of Mathematical Sciences and Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Mathematical Modeling and High-Performance Scientific Computation, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Da Zhou

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  1. Peican Chen
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Correspondence to Cheng Wang.

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Chen, P., Liu, Y., Hu, X. et al. Probing surface structure on two-dimensional metal-organic layers to understand suppressed interlayer packing. Nano Res. 13, 3151–3156 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2986-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2986-3

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