Three-Dimensional Electron Diffraction for Structural Analysis of Beam-Sensitive Metal-Organic Frameworks

Electrons interact strongly with matter, which makes it possible to obtain high-resolution electron diffraction data from nano- and submicron-sized crystals. Using electron beam as a radiation source in a transmission electron microscope (TEM), ab initio structure determination can be conducted from crystals that are 6–7 orders of magnitude smaller than using X-rays. The rapid development of three-dimensional electron diffraction (3DED) techniques has attracted increasing interests in the field of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), where it is often difficult to obtain large and high-quality crystals for single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Nowadays, a 3DED dataset can be acquired in 15–250 s by applying continuous crystal rotation, and the required electron dose rate can be very low (<0.1 e s−1 Å−2). In this review, we describe the evolution of 3DED data collection techniques and how the recent development of continuous rotation electron diffraction techniques improves data quality. We further describe the structure elucidation of MOFs using 3DED techniques, showing examples of using both low- and high-resolution 3DED data. With an improved data quality, 3DED can achieve a high accuracy, and reveal more structural details of MOFs. Because the physical and chemical properties of MOFs are closely associated with their crystal structures, we believe 3DED will only increase its importance in developing MOF materials.