Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Self-similar mesocrystals form via interface-driven nucleation and assembly

Nature volume 590, pages 416–422 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Crystallization by particle attachment (CPA) is a frequently occurring mechanism of colloidal crystallization that results in hierarchical morphologies1,2,3,4. CPA has been exploited to create nanomaterials with unusual properties4,5,6 and is implicated in the development of complex mineral textures1,7. Oriented attachment7,8—a form of CPA in which particles align along specific crystallographic directions—produces mesocrystals that diffract as single crystals do, although the constituent particles are still discernible2,9. The conventional view of CPA is that nucleation provides a supply of particles that aggregate via Brownian motion biased by attractive interparticle potentials1,9,10,11,12. However, mesocrystals often exhibit regular morphologies and uniform sizes. Although many crystal systems form mesocrystals1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and individual attachment events have been directly visualized10, how random attachment events lead to well defined, self-similar morphologies remains unknown, as does the role of surface-bound ligands, which are ubiquitous in nanoparticle systems3,9,11. Attempts to understand mesocrystal formation are further complicated in many systems by the presence of precursor nanoparticles with a phase distinct from that of the bulk1,13,14. Some studies propose that such particles convert before attachment15, whereas others attribute conversion to the attachment process itself16 and yet others conclude that transformation occurs after the mesocrystals exceed a characteristic size14,17. Here we investigate mesocrystal formation by iron oxides, which are important colloidal phases in natural environments18,19 and classic examples of systems forming ubiquitous precursor phases and undergoing CPA accompanied by phase transformations15,19,20,21. Combining in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at 80 degrees Celsius with ‘freeze-and-look’ TEM, we tracked the formation of haematite (Hm) mesocrystals in the presence of oxalate (Ox), which is abundant in soils, where iron oxides are common. We find that isolated Hm particles rarely appear, but once formed, interfacial gradients at the Ox-covered surfaces drive Hm particles to nucleate repeatedly about two nanometres from the surfaces, to which they then attach, thereby generating mesocrystals. Comparison to natural and synthetic systems suggests that interface-driven pathways are widespread.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Formation of spindle-shaped Hm mesocrystals from Fh nanoparticles.
Fig. 2: Relationship between developing Hm spindles and Fh.
Fig. 3: Liquid-phase TEM observation of Hm nucleation close to the Hm–solution interface and subsequent attachment to form Hm spindles.
Fig. 4: Structure and thermodynamics of Hm-solution interface.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The codes used for the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

References

  1. De Yoreo, J. J. et al. Crystallization by particle attachment in synthetic, biogenic, and geologic environments. Science 349, aaa6760 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Sturm, E. V. & Cölfen, H. Mesocrystals: past, presence, future. Crystals 7, 207 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Cho, K. S., Talapin, D. V., Gaschler, W. & Murray, C. B. Designing PbSe nanowires and nanorings through oriented attachment of nanoparticles. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127, 7140–7147 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Yang, J. et al. Formation of two-dimensional transition metal oxide nanosheets with nanoparticles as intermediates. Nat. Mater. 18, 970–976 (2019).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Whitham, K. et al. Charge transport and localization in atomically coherent quantum dot solids. Nat. Mater. 15, 557–563 (2016).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Boneschanscher, M. P. et al. Long-range orientation and atomic attachment of nanocrystals in 2D honeycomb superlattices. Science 344, 1377–1380 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Banfield, J. F., Welch, S. A., Zhang, H., Ebert, T. T. & Penn, R. L. Aggregation-based crystal growth and microstructure development in natural iron oxyhydroxide biomineralization products. Science 289, 751–754 (2000).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Penn, R. L. & Banfield, J. F. Imperfect oriented attachment: dislocation generation in defect-free nanocrystals. Science 281, 969–971 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Cölfen, H. & Antonietti, M. Mesocrystals and Nonclassical Crystallization (Wiley, 2008).

  10. Li, D. et al. Direction-specific interactions control crystal growth by oriented attachment. Science 336, 1014–1018 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Yin, Y. & Alivisatos, A. P. Colloidal nanocrystal synthesis and the organic–inorganic interface. Nature 437, 664–670 (2005).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Liu, L. et al. Connecting energetics to dynamics in particle growth by oriented attachment using real-time observations. Nat. Commun. 11, 1045 (2020).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Nielsen, M. H., Aloni, S. & De Yoreo, J. J. In situ TEM imaging of CaCO3 nucleation reveals coexistence of direct and indirect pathways. Science 345, 1158–1162 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Van Driessche, A. E. et al. The role and implications of bassanite as a stable precursor phase to gypsum precipitation. Science 336, 69–72 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Yuwono, V. M., Burrows, N. D., Soltis, J. A. & Penn, R. L. Oriented aggregation: formation and transformation of mesocrystal intermediates revealed. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 2163–2165 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Baumgartner, J. et al. Nucleation and growth of magnetite from solution. Nat. Mater. 12, 310–314 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Navrotsky, A., Mazeina, L. & Majzlan, J. Size-driven structural and thermodynamic complexity in iron oxides. Science 319, 1635–1638 (2008).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Cornell, R. M. & Schwertmann, U. The Iron Oxides: Structure, Properties, Reactions, Occurrences and Uses (Wiley-VCH, 2003).

  19. Fischer, W. R. The formation of hematite from amorphous iron(III) hydroxide. Clays Clay Miner. 23, 33–37 (1975).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Frandsen, C. et al. Aggregation-induced growth and transformation of β-FeOOH nanorods to micron-sized α-Fe2O3 spindles. CrystEngComm 16, 1451–1458 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Sugimoto, T., Itoh, H. & Mochida, T. Shape control of monodisperse hematite particles by organic additives in the gel–sol system. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 205, 42–52 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Sposito, G. Scaling invariance of the von Smoluchowski rate law. Colloids Surf. A 120, 101–110 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Tan, S. F. et al. In situ kinetic and thermodynamic growth control of Au–Pd core–shell nanoparticles. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 140, 11680–11685 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Smith, B. J. et al. Colloidal covalent organic frameworks. ACS Cent. Sci. 3, 58–65 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Xin, H. L. & Zheng, H. In situ observation of oscillatory growth of bismuth nanoparticles. Nano Lett. 12, 1470–1474 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Nielsen, M. H. et al. Investigating processes of nanocrystal formation and transformation via liquid cell TEM. Microsc. Microanal. 20, 425–436 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Cheng, Y. et al. Near surface nucleation and particle mediated growth of colloidal Au nanocrystals. Nanoscale 10, 11907–11912 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Lee, S. O., Tran, T., Jung, B. H., Kim, S. J. & Kim, M. J. Dissolution of iron oxide using oxalic acid. Hydrometallurgy 87, 91–99 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Loring, J. S., Simanova, A. A. & Persson, P. Highly mobile iron pool from a dissolution–readsorption process. Langmuir 24, 7054–7057 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Zhang, Y., Kallay, N. & Matijevic, E. Interaction of metal hydrous oxides with chelating agents. 7. Hematite–oxalic acid and –citric acid systems. Langmuir 1, 201–206 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Situm, A., Rahman, M. A., Allen, N., Kabengi, N. & Al-Abadleh, H. A. ATR-FTIR and flow microcalorimetry studies on the initial binding kinetics of arsenicals at the organic–hematite interface. J. Phys. Chem. A 121, 5569–5579 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Hu, Q. et al. The thermodynamics of calcite nucleation at organic interfaces: classical vs. non-classical pathways. Faraday Discuss. 159, 509–523 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Deng, N. et al. Organic–mineral interfacial chemistry drives heterogeneous nucleation of Sr-rich (Bax, Sr1−x)SO4 from undersaturated solution. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 13221–13226 (2019).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Jin, B., Sushko, M. L., Liu, Z., Jin, C. & Tang, R. In situ liquid cell TEM reveals bridge-induced contact and fusion of Au nanocrystals in aqueous solution. Nano Lett. 18, 6551–6556 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Söngen, H. et al. Resolving point defects in the hydration structure of calcite (104) with three-dimensional atomic force microscopy. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 116101 (2018).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Liu, Z. et al. Intrinsic dipole-field-driven mesoscale crystallization of core-shell ZnO mesocrystal microspheres. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 9405–9412 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Zhang, Z. et al. Three-dimensionally oriented aggregation of a few hundred nanoparticles into monocrystalline architectures. Adv. Mater. 17, 42–47 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Ye, J. et al. Nanoporous anatase TiO2 mesocrystals: additive-free synthesis, remarkable crystalline-phase stability, and improved lithium insertion behavior. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133, 933–940 (2011).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Laramy, C. R. et al. Understanding nanoparticle-mediated nucleation pathways of anisotropic nanoparticles. Chem. Phys. Lett. 683, 389–392 (2017).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Chen, X., Noh, K. W., Wen, J. G. & Dillon, S. J. In situ electrochemical wet cell transmission electron microscopy characterization of solid–liquid interactions between Ni and aqueous NiCl2. Acta Mater. 60, 192–198 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Egglseder, M. S. et al. Tiny particles building huge ore deposits – particle-based crystallisation in banded iron formation-hosted iron ore deposits (Hamersley Province, Australia). Ore Geol. Rev. 104, 160–174 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Lin, X., Heaney, P. & Post, J. E. Iridescence in metamorphic “rainbow” hematite. Gems Gemology 54, 28–39 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  43. Anand, R. R. & Gilkes, R. J. Variations in the properties of iron oxides within individual specimens of lateritic duricrust. Soil Res. 25, 287–302 (1987).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Grotzinger, J. P. & Knoll, A. H. Stromatolites in Precambrian carbonates: evolutionary mileposts or environmental dipsticks? Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 27, 313–358 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Zhou, L. & O’Brien, P. Mesocrystals: a new class of solid materials. Small 4, 1566–1574 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Schwertmann, U. & Cornell, R. M. Iron Oxides in the Laboratory (VCH, 1991).

  47. Soltis, J. A., Feinberg, J. M., Gilbert, B. & Penn, R. L. Phase transformation and particle-mediated growth in the formation of hematite from 2-line ferrihydrite. Cryst. Growth Des. 16, 922–932 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Sugimoto, T., Muramatsu, A., Sakata, K. & Shindo, D. Characterization of hematite particles of different shapes. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 158, 420–428 (1993).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Zhu, G., Reiner, H., Colfen, H. & De Yoreo, J. J. Addressing some of the technical challenges associated with liquid phase S/TEM studies of particle nucleation, growth and assembly. Micron 118, 35–42 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Zhu, G. et al. Atomic resolution liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy investigations of the dynamics of nanoparticles in ultrathin liquids. Chem. Commun. 49, 10944–10946 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Loh, N. D. et al. Multistep nucleation of nanocrystals in aqueous solution. Nat. Chem. 9, 77–82 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Lu, Y. et al. Modifying surface chemistry of metal oxides for boosting dissolution kinetics in water by liquid cell electron microscopy. ACS Nano 11, 8018–8025 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Huang, X., Hou, X., Song, F., Zhao, J. & Zhang, L. Ascorbate induced facet dependent reductive dissolution of hematite nanocrystals. J. Phys. Chem. C 121, 1113–1121 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Sushko, M. L. & Rosso, K. M. The origin of facet selectivity and alignment in anatase TiO2 nanoparticles in electrolyte solutions: implications for oriented attachment in metal oxides. Nanoscale 8, 19714–19725 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Meng, D., Zheng, B., Lin, G. & Sushko, M. L. Numerical solution of 3D Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations coupled with classical density functional theory for modeling ion and electron transport in a confined environment. Commun. Comput. Phys. 16, 1298–1322 (2014).

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  56. Zhang, X. et al. Direction-specific van der Waals attraction between rutile TiO2 nanocrystals. Science 356, 434–437 (2017).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Wu, J. & Li, Z. Density-functional theory for complex fluids. Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 58, 85–112 (2007).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  58. Perdew, J. P., Burke, K. & Ernzerhof, M. Generalized gradient approximation made simple. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3865–3868 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  59. Dudarev, S. L., Botton, G. A., Savrasov, S. Y., Humphreys, C. J. & Sutton, A. P. Electron-energy-loss spectra and the structural stability of nickel oxide: an LSDA+U study. Phys. Rev. B 57, 1505–1509 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  60. Mosey, N. J., Liao, P. & Carter, E. A. Rotationally invariant ab initio evaluation of Coulomb and exchange parameters for DFT+U calculations. J. Chem. Phys. 129, 014103 (2008).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  61. Stefánsson, A. Iron (III) hydrolysis and solubility at 25 degrees C. Environ. Sci. Technol. 41, 6117–6123 (2007).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  62. Legg, B. A. et al. A model for nucleation when nuclei are nonstoichiometric: understanding the precipitation of iron oxyhydroxide nanoparticles. Cryst. Growth Des. 16, 5726–5737 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  63. Elhadj, S., Chernov, A. A. & De Yoreo, J. J. Solvent-mediated repair and patterning of surfaces by AFM. Nanotechnology 19, 105304 (2008).

    Article  ADS  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank C. Wang, J. Tao, M. E. McBriarty, E. Ilton and E. Nakouzi for discussions. We thank D. Li, C. Wang and L. Kovarik for TEM support. This material is based on work supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division, Geosciences Program at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). High-resolution TEM and STEM imaging and DFT simulations were performed in the Environmental and Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at PNNL sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research. PNNL is a multiprogramme national laboratory operated for the DOE by Battelle under contract no. DE-AC05–76RL01830.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physical Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA

    Guomin Zhu, Maria L. Sushko, John S. Loring, Benjamin A. Legg, Miao Song, Jennifer A. Soltis, Xiaopeng Huang, Kevin M. Rosso & James J. De Yoreo

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Guomin Zhu, Benjamin A. Legg & James J. De Yoreo

Authors
  1. Guomin Zhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Maria L. Sushko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. John S. Loring
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Benjamin A. Legg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Miao Song
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jennifer A. Soltis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Xiaopeng Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Kevin M. Rosso
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. James J. De Yoreo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

J.J.D.Y. supervised the project. G.Z. performed the spindle haematite syntheses, regular TEM, reference-grid TEM, and in situ TEM experiments; G.Z. and J.J.D.Y. analysed and discussed the data. M.L.S. performed the simulation; J.S.L. performed the FTIR measurement; G.Z. and M.S. performed the 3D tomography experiment; G.Z. and J.A.S. performed the cryo-TEM experiment; X.H. provided haematite samples for FTIR measurement; B.A.L. calculated the interfacial free energy. B.A.L. and K.M.R. engaged in discussion extensively. All authors wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James J. De Yoreo.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature thanks Stephan E. Wolf and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Characteristics of rhombohedral Hm versus spindle Hm.

a, b, TEM image of rhombohedral Hm, synthesized without adding Ox. c, HRTEM image of the edge of rhombohedral Hm showing a smooth surface with a perfect two-dimensional lattice. Inset, the corresponding FFT. d–f, TEM image of spindle Hm with a rough surface, synthesized with the addition of Ox, showing that the spindle is comprised of atomically aligned primary particles. Insets in e, f, are FFTs of their respective images. g, h, Example of the use of electron diffraction to identify the elongation direction of the spindle. Similarly, an FFT of the HRTEM image (e, inset) was used to identify the elongation direction of the spindle, which is [001]. i, High-resolution STEM image of the edge of the spindle highlighting the continuity of the lattice from particle to particle. Potential nanopores are indicated by the arrow in i.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Cryo-TEM investigation of the growth of spindle-shaped Hm mesocrystal from Fh at 90 °C.

a, Loose aggregates of Fh after 1 h. b, Hm spindles appear among Fh aggregates after 3 h. c, Spindle Hm after 8 h. d, Schematic of cryo sample preparation and sublimation of the vitrified ice to remove the background from the ice. e, HRTEM of the spindle to confirm the formation of Hm. Inset, FFT.

Extended Data Fig. 3 TEM imaging of a cross-section of a Hm spindle.

a, Schematic of a spindle consisting of an aggregate of primary particles. b, TEM image of the cross-section through a cut parallel to the y–z plane. Inset, FFT of the structure. c, Cross-section of a cut parallel to the x–y plane. Inset, FFT of the structure. d, Line profile along the (104) plane in the inset to b. e, Line profile (arbitrary units) along the \((1\bar{1}\bar{4})\) plane in the inset to c. The elongation can be used to measure the particle misorientation.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Further examples of applying reference TEM grids to follow the Hm growth on Fh as protruding half-spindles pointing towards the solution.

a, Initial Fh aggregates. b, TEM image showing half-spindles of Hm growing on the original Fh aggregates. Shrinkage of the Fh aggregates from 787 nm to 713 nm is indicated. Arrows highlight the Hm growth over the Fh. c, d, Multiple examples of half-spindle Hm. e, HRTEM showing a half-spindle Hm mesocrystal, the initial Fh, and the boundary between the two. Upon examination of over 30 half-spindles, all were found to point away from the Fh and into the solution. Inset, FFT of the Hm. Note that only Hm spindles on the edges of the Fh aggregates can be used to determine whether or not the spindles point towards the solution, owing to the two-dimensional projection in TEM.

Extended Data Fig. 5 TEM imaging of Hm spindles grown over rhombohedral Hm seeds.

a, d, Rhombohedral Hm particles with a smooth surface are used as seeds. b, e, Primary Hm particles that have grown over the seeds after 2 h. Inset of e, FFT showing that the seed and the primary particles are crystallographically aligned. c, f, Formation of spindle Hm after 5 h with the rhombohedral Hm seeds still seen inside the spindles. The yellow dashed lines mark the boundaries of the rhombohedral seeds.

Extended Data Fig. 6 TEM imaging of the growth of rhombohedral Hm over spindle Hm seeds.

This is the inverse process to that shown in Extended Data Fig. 5. a, TEM image of spindle Hm seed. b, c, Growth of Hm over the spindle-shaped seeds in a solution without Ox to direct growth to a classical ion-by-ion process. Inset, electron diffraction pattern from the particle, showing its monocrystalline nature. d, Schematic of the rhombohedral Hm growth over the spindle Hm seed.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Sequential STEM images of the dissolution of Fh and nucleation of new Hm particles close to the Hm seed/solution interface.

Hm seed particles appear and diffuse within the field of view as denoted by the numbers. Fh aggregates are easily resolved in the STEM mode. The white arrows indicate newly formed Hm particles close to the Hm seeds.

Extended Data Fig. 8 Post-mortem analyses of products after disassembly of the liquid-cell chips.

The liquid-cell chamber was aged at 80 °C for 5 h in the TEM. a, STEM image of spindle Hm with clear porous structure. b, c, STEM and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping of the spindles in a, showing the oxygen and iron distributions only. d, TEM image of spindle Hm at low magnification showing uniform distribution of spindle Hm on the SiN window. e, Corresponding selected area diffraction from spindles in d highlighting two diffraction rings of Hm from (012) and Hm (104) planes with an interplane distance of 0.37 nm and 0.27 nm, respectively.

Extended Data Fig. 9 Analysis of the gap size between a Hm seed and a nucleus and its elimination over time during in situ TEM.

The gap is defined as the distance between the edge of the seed and the edge of the new particle. a, TEM image of a spheroidal nucleus that occurs close to the seed surface indicated by the arrow. b, TEM image of the nucleus attaching to the seed particle over time. c, Line profile along the red dashed line in a, measuring the gap size between the nucleus and the seed. The grey value unit is arbitrary. d, Line profile along the red dashed line in b, demonstrating elimination of the gap over time.

Extended Data Fig. 10 Further examples of the measurement of the gap size between a seed particle and a nucleus.

a, c, TEM image of a spheroidal nucleus that occurs close to the seed surface (a), and its line profile (c) demonstrating the existence of the gap at 23 s of Fig. 3. b, d, TEM image (b) of another case of the gap measurement between the spheroidal nucleus and the seed particle, and the corresponding line profile (d). The overall contrast change could come from a change in focus during the in situ experiment. Line profile units are arbitrary.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 1–7 and Supplementary Tables 1–2 are in this Supplementary Information file, together with oxalate adsorption kinetics, particle–particle interaction calculation, and accuracy of the simulation.

Video 1

Tilt series of a spindle-shaped Hm mesocrystal over a range of ±65 degrees, at 2° increments collected in STEM mode.

Video 2

Hm nucleation close to the Hm seeds and formation of Hm mesocrystal collected in the TEM mode. Fh is difficult to see in the TEM mode due to the low contrast. Playback speed is 2× the original speed. Beam current is 0.7 nA. The dose rate is 2.3 e/Å2/s.

Video 3

Hm nucleation close to the Hm seeds and formation of Hm mesocrystal collected in the STEM mode. A mixture of Hm seeds and Fh is present initially and the Hm is covered with Fh. See the methods for dose details. Beam current is 0.53 nA. The dose rate is 11.4 e/Å2/s.

Video 4

Another example of Hm nucleation close to the Hm seeds and formation of Hm mesocrystals collected in the TEM mode. Fh is difficult to see due to the low contrast in TEM mode. Playback speed is 2× the original speed. Scale bar is 20 nm. The dose rate is 6.5 e/Å2/s.

Video 5

Another example of Hm nucleation close to the Hm seeds followed by attachment to the seeds collected in TEM mode. Playback speed is 2X the original speed. The dose rate is 16.7 e/Å2/s.

Video 6

TEM observations of Hm nucleation close to Hm seeds and growing Hm spindles followed by attachment to advance the growth of the spindles over a time span of 15 minutes. The electron beam was blocked for most of time course of the experiment, with beam exposure only occurring for collection of short image series in the middle of the experiment. The dose rate is 155 e/Å2/s.

Video 7

Highlight of TEM observation of near-surface Hm nucleation and attachment taken from the middle portion of video 6.

Source data

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhu, G., Sushko, M.L., Loring, J.S. et al. Self-similar mesocrystals form via interface-driven nucleation and assembly. Nature 590, 416–422 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03300-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03300-0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing