Synthesis and Structure of Ultrathin Aluminosilicate Films

Making films: Ordered aluminosilicate films are grown on a Mo(112) substrate, and their structures are determined through high-resolution experiments and density functional theory calculations. At low Al/Si ratios, aluminum atoms partially replace the silicon atoms of the silica structure. The resulting aluminosilicate film consists of a layer of corner-sharing {SiO4} and {AlO3} units (see picture; Mo gray, Al blue, Si orange, O red).