Fig. 1.

LTA crystals and growth solutions. a Powder X-ray diffraction patterns of solid precipitate obtained after heating growth solutions at 65 °C for various times. The LTA framework was confirmed using a reference (top pattern). b Electron micrograph of a LTA crystal after heating for 4 h at 65 °C. c Silicon concentration in solution obtained at various times (S2–S4 are used as growth solutions for in situ AFM). Additional elemental analysis is provided in Supplementary Table 1. d Small-angle X-ray scattering patterns of supernatant S4 and the background (water). Subtraction of the two patterns (black line) indicates the absence of nanoparticles (see Supplementary Fig. 2 for solutions S2 and S3). e Electron micrograph of a crystal prepared by heating supernatant S4 for 24 h at 45 °C. f AFM image of a LTA crystal surface (see also Supplementary Fig. 5) depicting a hillock with step heights of 1.2 nm, equivalent to the unit cell (a = b = c = 1.19 nm, Pm-3m). All scale bars are equal to 200 nm