Mechanism of Water Intrusion into Flexible ZIF-8: Liquid Is Not Vapor.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37294683.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c00235 and PMC identifier 10311589.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIF) find application in storage and dissipation of mechanical energy. Their distinctive properties linked to their (sub)nanometer size and hydrophobicity allow for water intrusion only under high hydrostatic pressure. Here we focus on the popular ZIF-8 material investigating the intrusion mechanism in its nanoscale cages, which is the key to its rational exploitation in target applications. In this work, we used a joint experimental/theoretical approach combining in operando synchrotron experiments during high-pressure intrusion experiments, molecular dynamics simulations, and stochastic models to reveal that water intrusion into ZIF-8 occurs by a cascade filling of connected cages rather than a condensation process as previously assumed. The reported results allowed us to establish structure/function relations in this prototypical microporous material, representing an important step to devise design rules to synthesize porous media.