Freezing the Nonclassical Crystal Growth of a Coordination Polymer Using Controlled Dynamic Gradients.

Rubio-Martinez, Marta; Imaz, Inhar; Domingo, Neus; Abrishamkar, Afshin; Mayor, Tiago Sotto; Rossi, René M; Carbonell, Carlos; deMello, Andrew J et al. · Adv Mater · 2016

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

A methodology that can be efficiently used to synthesize, isolate, and study out-of-equilibrium crystal structures employing controlled and diffusion-limited microfluidic environments is demonstrated. Unlike studies conducted with conventional mixing procedures in a flask, it is proven experimentally and with numerical simulations that microfluidic technologies can undoubtedly fine-tune reaction times and reagents concentration profiles; factors that enable out-of-equilibrium crystal forms to be obtained.