Title : Adsorption induced low temperature transformations of methane adsorbed in IRMOF microporous structures Bogdan Kuchta
Abstract:
We discuss the mechanism of the structural transformations of gas adsorbed in microporous crystalline solids. We show that it is possible to induce structural transformations in a confined system by simply varying the number of molecules adsorbed in the pore. We found that the mechanism of these novel, adsorption-induced structural transformation in nano-pores differs from the capillary condensation. First, the structure of the confined gas is determined by a competition between adsorption sites attractive forces and intermolecular interaction. Second, at low temperature, the transformation is discontinuous because it is defined by limited number of accessible adsorption sites. In the case of methane adsorbed in IRMOFs porous structures the character of transformation depends on temperature but also on the IRMOF structure: it changes from strongly discontinuous (especially at low temperatures), to continuous transition. The mechanism of the transformation is also modified by the size of the gas molecules and the strength of interaction. However, even discontinuous transition can produce continuous isotherms. We will show that the continuous isotherm can be the effect of statistical dynamical switching between two phase, characterized by different number of adsorbed molecules. We show the simulated microscopic mechanism and experimental observations support such statistical interpretation.
Audience take away:
• Mechanism of methane adsorption in microporous systems at low temperature
• New type of structural transformations.
• Microscopic interpretation of adsorption.
