Structural dynamics in metal-organic frameworks

Abstract

Time-resolved serial crystallography has been widely used in protein structure research for the past decade due to its ability to determine the molecular structure in small crystals. It is also one of the cutting-edge experimental methods that can elucidate changes in protein structure during biochemical reactions. While time-resolved serial crystallography has been actively applied in protein research, studies have yet to apply it to study structural dynamics in small molecules. In this paper, we introduce a study that sheds light on the structural dynamics of small molecules using time-resolved serial crystallography for the first time. It is observed that the small molecule of this study follows along three different structural pathways in the ultrafast time domain. Each of the three structural pathways is unveiled to proceed through generating a vibrationally hot structure, a transient structure, and the coherent oscillatory motion assigned phonon mode.