Light-Regulated Nucleation for Growing Highly Uniform Single-Crystalline Microrods

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Crystallography
• Photochemistry

Background:

• Controlling crystal nucleation and growth is crucial for materials synthesis.
• Existing methods often involve restricting spontaneous nucleation or adding seeds.
• Donor-acceptor (D-A) fluorophores are versatile materials with tunable optical properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel light-irradiation method for controlling synchronous nucleation of D-A fluorophores.
• To achieve the growth of highly uniform single-crystalline microrods.
• To establish a new method for detecting strong Lewis acids.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing light irradiation to induce photoinduced electron transfer in a D-A fluorophore with CrCl3.
• Generating HCl in situ, leading to protonation and supersaturation of the D-A fluorophore.
• Controlling nucleation and subsequent epitaxial growth by adjusting light intensity and duration.

Main Results:

• Achieved synchronous nucleation of D-A fluorophores under light irradiation.
• Grew highly uniform single-crystalline microrods with controlled sizes.
• Demonstrated that the light-regulated synchronous nucleation is specific to strong Lewis acids like CrCl3.

Conclusions:

• Light-irradiation offers a precise method for controlling crystal nucleation and growth of D-A fluorophores.
• The developed method enables the synthesis of uniform single-crystalline microrods.
• This technique serves as a sensitive and novel probing method for detecting strong Lewis acids.