A single-molecule van der Waals compass

Single-molecule imaging is challenging but highly beneficial for investigating intermolecular interactions at the molecular level 1 – 6 . Van der Waals interactions at the sub-nanometre scale strongly influence various molecular behaviours under confinement conditions 7 – 11 . Inspired by the tradit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) Vol. 592; no. 7855; pp. 541 - 544
Main Authors: Shen, Boyuan, Chen, Xiao, Wang, Huiqiu, Xiong, Hao, Bosch, Eric G. T., Lazić, Ivan, Cai, Dali, Qian, Weizhong, Jin, Shifeng, Liu, Xin, Han, Yu, Wei, Fei
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 22.04.2021
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:
639/301/299/1013
639/301/930/328/2082
Adsorption
Atomic properties
Atomic structure
Compasses
Electron microscopy
Geometry
Humanities and Social Sciences
Imaging
Microscopy
Molecular dynamics
Molecular structure
multidisciplinary
Observations
p-Xylene
Paraxylene
Phase contrast
Porous materials
Scanning microscopy
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Straight channels
Xylene
Zeolites
China
ISSN:0028-0836, 1476-4687, 1476-4687
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Single-molecule imaging is challenging but highly beneficial for investigating intermolecular interactions at the molecular level 1 – 6 . Van der Waals interactions at the sub-nanometre scale strongly influence various molecular behaviours under confinement conditions 7 – 11 . Inspired by the traditional compass 12 , here we use a para -xylene molecule as a rotating pointer to detect the host–guest van der Waals interactions in the straight channel of the MFI-type zeolite framework. We use integrated differential phase contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy 13 – 15 to achieve real-space imaging of a single para -xylene molecule in each channel. A good correlation between the orientation of the single-molecule pointer and the atomic structure of the channel is established by combining the results of calculations and imaging studies. The orientations of para -xylene help us to identify changes in the van der Waals interactions, which are related to the channel geometry in both spatial and temporal dimensions. This work not only provides a visible and sensitive means to investigate host–guest van der Waals interactions in porous materials at the molecular level, but also encourages the further study of other single-molecule behaviours using electron microscopy techniques. The orientation of a rotating para -xylene molecule in the nanochannel of a zeolite framework can be visualised by electron microscopy to determine the host–guest van der Waals interaction inside the channel.
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ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03429-y