Coordination-Driven Monolayer-to-Bilayer Transition in Two-Dimensional Metal–Organic Networks

Scientists at LMN and the University of Basel have discovered a nucleation and growth mechanism of metal-organic coordination networks in Langmuir Blodgett films floating on water. The details of the 3D coordination shell geometry enable this unique 3D growth mechanism for Cu ions and constrains the Ni coordinated network to only a single monolayer.  The structure of the layers and their evolution after transfer to solid substrates, was unraveled by the spectro-microscopy correlation methods using X-ray and scanning-probe microscopes. In ongoing work, the magnetism of these unique free-standing layers will be investigated at the Swiss Light Source.

M. Moradi et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2021, 125  https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c01058

M. Moradi et al. Science Advances 5, eaav4489 (2019). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav4489