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.
Electron Diffraction on Flash-Frozen Cowlesite Reveals the Structure of the First Two-Dimensional Natural Zeolite / Mugnaioli, E.; Lanza, A. E.; Bortolozzi, G.; Righi, L.; Merlini, M.; Cappello, V.; Marini, L.; Athanassiou, A.; Gemmi, M.. - In: ACS CENTRAL SCIENCE. - ISSN 2374-7951. - 6:9(2020), pp. 1578-1586. [10.1021/acscentsci.9b01100]
Electron Diffraction on Flash-Frozen Cowlesite Reveals the Structure of the First Two-Dimensional Natural Zeolite
Righi L.;Marini L.;
2020-01-01
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.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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