Metal Carbide Nanocrystal Nucleation and Growth in a Transition Metal Coordination Polymer

The mechanism that governs the conversion of the Co-Prussian blue analogue (PBA) to Co 2 C was investigated and observed to exhibit lag phase growth behavior that can be fit to the autocatalytic kinetic model. The energetics and activation energies were extracted from the temperature-dependent data. The experimental results provide insight into how to control the size and crystallinity of Co 2 C, where shorter lag times and smaller sizes occur at higher reaction temperatures and longer times and larger sizes at lower temperatures. Investigation of temperature-dependent growth revealed an R 2 relationship, supporting a surface mediated growth model. In addition, low temperatures lead to higher polycrystallinity in the nanocrystal that grows within the PBA framework.