In step I, as the electron beam is exposed to the sample and the cumulative dose increases, the N-Zn bonds start breaking, leading to the formation of several point defects, such as dangling linker (DL) and linker vacancy (LV) defects . The intensity of the {400} Bragg plane peaks decays faster than the intensity of the {431} Bragg plane peaks. Here, one must consider the weakest bond in the ZIF structure (i.e., the N-Zn bond) and the number of structural features formed by this weak bond (i.e., the number of ZnN₄ tetrahedra) present in each Bragg plane. The larger the number of ZnN4 tetrahedra in a Bragg plane, the higher the cumulative dose is required to break all N-Zn bonds, resulting in a higher critical dose for that particular plane. The {400} Bragg plane contains 2 ZnN4 tetrahedra per unit cell, while the {431} plane contains 3 ZnN4 tetrahedra. Consequently, a lower cumulative dose is required (and measured) to break all N-Zn bonds in the {400} Bragg plane. The relative intensity of {431} Bragg plane decreases up to a cumulative electron dose of 9 e -Å -2 , as shown in fig. ), but no relative displacement is observed. In this stage, the point defect density is also low; hence, no lattice displacement has been observed. It is reasonable to assume that the crystallinity of ZIF-8 is still intact, with just a few point defects formation (as indicated by the red lightening shape in Fig 5).