Issue 39, 2020

Hierarchical nanosheets built from superatomic clusters: properties, exfoliation and single-crystal-to-single-crystal intercalation

Abstract

Tuning the properties of atomic crystals in the two-dimensional (2D) limit is synthetically challenging, but critical to unlock their potential in fundamental research and nanotechnology alike. 2D crystals assembled using superatomic blocks could provide a route to encrypt desirable functionality, yet strategies to link the inorganic blocks together in predetermined dimensionality or symmetry are scarce. Here, we describe the synthesis of anisotropic van der Waals crystalline frameworks using the designer superatomic nanocluster Co3(py)3Co6Se8L6 (py = pyridine, L = Ph2PN(Tol)), and ditopic linkers. Post-synthetically, the 3D crystals can be mechanically exfoliated into ultrathin flakes (8 to 60 nm), or intercalated with the redox-active guest tetracyanoethylene in a single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation. Extensive characterization, including by single crystal X-ray diffraction, reveals how intrinsic features of the nanocluster, such as its structure, chirality, redox-activity and magnetic profile, predetermine key properties of the emerging 2D structures. Within the nanosheets, the strict and unusual stereoselectivity of the nanocluster's Co edges for the low symmetry (α,α,β) isomer gives rise to in-plane structural anisotropy, while the helically chiral nanoclusters self-organize into alternating Δ- and Λ-homochiral rows. The nanocluster's high-spin Co edges, and its rich redox profile make the nanosheets both magnetically and electrochemically active, as revealed by solid state magnetic and cyclic voltammetry studies. The length and flexibility of the ditopic linker was varied, and found to have a secondary effect on the structure and stacking of the nanosheets within the 3D crystals. With these results we introduce a deterministic and versatile synthetic entry to programmable functionality and symmetry in 2D superatomic crystals.

Graphical abstract: Hierarchical nanosheets built from superatomic clusters: properties, exfoliation and single-crystal-to-single-crystal intercalation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
24 Jun 2020
Accepted
01 Aug 2020
First published
03 Aug 2020
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 10744-10751

Hierarchical nanosheets built from superatomic clusters: properties, exfoliation and single-crystal-to-single-crystal intercalation

J. A. Kephart, C. G. Romero, C. Tseng, K. J. Anderton, M. Yankowitz, W. Kaminsky and A. Velian, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 10744 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC03506H

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