Arrested spinodal demixing of aqueous solutions of small inorganic solutes

Arrested spinodal demixing (SD) provides nanoporous materials with high surface area, excellent pore accessibility, and structural isotropy. These traits are sought-after for sensing, catalysis, or energy applications. However, SD is still deemed inapplicable for aqueous solutions of small inorganic solids. Tenets claim that the instability regime is inaccessible as burst nucleation intervenes. With our approach combining unprecedented fast-flow chemistry with spontaneous formation of pre-critical coordination entities (eg, prenucleation clusters), SD becomes accessible in a wide range of inorganic solutes, ranging from mineral-forming main group compounds to transition-metal MOF-type systems. In this experiment, in-situ small- to ultrasmall-angle X-ray scattering will provide the missing piece of evidence for genuine spinodal demixing via the occurence and temporal evolution of a dominant spinodal length and its centrosymmetric scattering patterns.