The Molecular Mechanism of Iron(III) Oxide Nucleation

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.6b01237
• Publication Date: 2016-07-28T17:58:11Z
• Authors: Johanna Scheck; Baohu Wu; Markus Drechsler; Rose Rosenberg; Alexander E. S. V...; Tomasz M. Stawski; Denis Gebauer
• Keywords: Nanocrystalline material

A molecular understanding of the formation solid phases from solution would be beneficial for various scientific fields. However, nucleation pathways are still not fully understood, whereby case iron (oxyhydr)oxides poses a prime example. We show that in prenucleation regime, thermodynamically stable solute species up to few nanometers size observed, which meet definition clusters. Nucleation then is governed by critical size, but rather dynamics clusters forming at distinct stages, based on chemistry linkages within This resolves longstanding debate field oxide nucleation, and results may generally apply oxides via hydrolysis condensation. The (molecular) chemical basis phase separation paramount for, e.g., tailoring shape structure novel nanocrystalline materials.