Unified internal architecture and surface barriers for molecular diffusion of microporous crystalline aluminophosphates

Starless molecular sieves: The starlike appearence of confocal fluorescence microscopy (CFM) images of large crystals of the AlPO-5 family of microporous materials is due to the presence of barriers to molecular diffusion in the internal crystal architecture (see picture) rather than a star-shaped subcrystal according to studies by CFM, focused ion beam milling, electron backscatter diffraction, and atomic force microscopy.