title: Geometric matching principle for adsorption selectivity of ionic liquids: a simple method into the fascinating world of shape-controlled chemistry.
abstract: Ionic liquids (ILs) possess effective functions in controlling the phase and morphology of nanomaterials. However, it is still unclear how ILs affect the morphology control and what the origin of adsorption selectivity of ILs is on different crystal facets. It is a challenge to develop a simple method to select the suitable kinds of ILs for achieving the controllable synthesis of nanomaterials with designable shape. Herein, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were combined with experiment to study the interaction mechanism between ILs and crystal facets. An important relationship is proposed, named as the geometric matching principle, in which the adsorption site of substrate should not only need to meet the space requirement for interionic stacking of ILs, but also needs to maximize the interaction between adsorbed ILs and substrate. This new finding is meaningful for prediction of the adsorption selectivity of ILs and clarification of their shape-controlled chemistry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (MOE), TKL Laboratory of Metal and Molecule-Based Materials Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Nankai University, Tianjin 300071 (P.R. China).
authors.forename: Kezhen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Xiaochuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Guichang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Liyan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
keywords: density functional calculations; geometric matching; ionic liquids; morphology control; nanostructures