Binary mesocrystals from the nano-building kit

Mesocrystals are a class of solids formed by the regular arrangement of nanocrystals, which are tiny nanoparticles that have unique properties due to their small size. In mesocrystals, these take on a highly organized, superordinate form in a densely packed grid. A German-Swiss research team led by Professor Helmut Cölfen, a chemist from Konstanz, has now succeeded in synthesizing particularly complex mesocrystals with largely unknown chemical and physical properties and in shedding light on their structure.