手性无机材料的三维电子晶体学结构研究

手性无机材料由于独特的理化特征引起了广泛关注，深入理解其晶体结构及形成机理对其性质和应用有着关键作用。然而这类材料的结构解析存在很大困难，限制了新材料的开发和应用。本课题拟在前期基础上，对手性无机材料开展电子晶体学结构研究。(1)选取具有非手性空间群的金属、金属氧化物等无机材料体系，制备具有不同手性结构的系列材料；(2)发展结构解析方法，分别从倒易空间和正空间进行三维电子晶体学研究，通过三维电子衍射重构获取材料三维倒易空间的衍射信息，通过原子分辨断层成像解析晶体的原子排布与扭转关系，分析其晶体结构、手性关系、扭转缺陷等。(3)揭示不同类型模板单元导向相应手性结构的机制，探讨结构变化规律、形成机理，建立晶体扭转的几何学和晶体学模型及快速易行的三维复杂结构分析方法，研究结构与性能的关系并反馈新的合成。本研究对于手性科学、纳米化学和晶体学具有重要理论价值，并将为新材料的表征和应用打下良好基础。

Chiral inorganic materials have attracted great interests due to their unique asymmetric structures and material properties, which would open new horizons in many potential applications such as optical devices, pharmacy, catalysis, metamaterials, etc. The crystal structure of these chiral inorganic materials and their formation mechanisms involved in the synthesis are crucial issues in understanding their chemical and physical properties. This raises the bar in terms of the structural characterisation and extends a real challenge to the scientific community to fully understand the crystal structures and the chiral arrangements. However, the structural characterisations of these chiral inorganic materials are very challenging and new methods employing the three-dimensional electron crystallography need to be developed. In this proposal, we will focus on the electron crystallographic structural solution of these materials based on our previous research results, including (i) Various metal, metal oxides with different chiral structures, including the crystal with twisted lattice or screw dislocations, chiral stacking of nanocrystals, etc., will be selected and synthesised. (ii) The detailed structural study of these materials will be performed by electron crystallography from both reciprocal space and the real space. Two new techniques, the three-dimensional electron diffraction tomography and the atomic resolution electron tomography, will be applied to the materials to reveal the crystal structures and the chiral features, including structural relationship, epitaxial intergrowth and defects, will be studied thoroughly. (iii) The formation mechanisms of these chiral inorganic materials through the interaction between organic template and the inorganic species will be studied experimentally. Finally, a facial analytical method will be developed to reveal the geometrical and structural features of the materials and feed back to the new synthesis for creating novel functional materials. This project could provide significant opportunities in various research areas and open new horizons in chiral materials, nanotechnology and electron crystallography.