Temperature effect on water intrusion/expulsion in grafted silica gels

Calorimetric Heats of Intrusion of LiCl Aqueous Solutions in Hydrophobic MFI-Type Zeosil: Influence of the Concentration

For the first time, we report calorimetric measurements of intrusion of aqueous LiCl solutions in a hydrophobic pure siliceous MFI zeolite (silicalite-1) under high pressure. Our results show that the intrusion heats are strongly dependent on the LiCl concentration. The intrusion process is endothermic for diluted solutions (molar H2O/LiCl = 12) as well as for water, but it becomes exothermic for a concentration close to saturation (molar H2O/LiCl = 4). Analysis of the data in the framework of wetting thermodynamics shows that besides surface wetting, other phenomena occur during intrusion, such as hydrogen-bond weakening and composition change. In all cases, water is preferentially intruded so that the intruded phase becomes more diluted than the bulk solution. In the case of the most diluted solution, only water molecules seemed to be intruded. Furthermore, silicalite-1 is shown to be very stable in the presence of LiCl solution, with no noticeable structural and textural modifications observed after intrusion.

Suspensions of lyophobic nanoporous particles as smart materials for energy absorption

HYPOTHESIS

Suspensions of nanoporous particles in non-wetting fluids (lyophobic nanoporous suspensions, LPNPS) are explored as energy absorbing materials for shock absorbers, bumpers, and energy storage. Upon application of pressure, the non-wetting fluid invades the pores transforming the impact energy into the interfacial energy that can be stored and released on demand.

EXPERIMENTS

Here, we present a comprehensive experimental study of the dynamics of LPNPS compression within a wide range of shock impact energy for three types of mesoporous materials (Libersorb 23, Polysorb-1, and Silochrome-1.5) with water and Wood alloy as non-wetting fluids.

FINDINGS

Three different regimes of the LPNPS compression-expansion cycle in response to the shock impact are distinguished as the impact energy increases: without fluid penetration into the pores, with partial penetration, and with complete pore filling. In two latter regimes, the suspension compressibility in the process of rapid compression increases by 2-4 decimal decades. This giant effect is associated with the onset of penetration of the non-wetting fluid into the nanopores upon achievement of a certain threshold pressure. The dynamic threshold pressure exceeds the threshold pressure of quasistatic intrusion and does not depends on the impact pressure, temperature, and suspension composition. A dynamic model of suspension compression is suggested that allows to separate the effects of the fluid intrusion into the pores and the elastic deformation of the system.

Effect of Flexibility and Nanotriboelectrification on the Dynamic Reversibility of Water Intrusion into Nanopores: Pressure-Transmitting Fluid with Frequency-Dependent Dissipation Capability

In this article, the effect of a porous material's flexibility on the dynamic reversibility of a nonwetting liquid intrusion was explored experimentally. For this purpose, high-pressure water intrusion together with high-pressure in situ small-angle neutron scattering were applied for superhydrophobic grafted silica and two metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with different flexibility [ZIF-8 and Cu₂(tebpz) (tebpz = 3,3',5,5'tetraethyl-4,4'-bipyrazolate)]. These results established the relation between the pressurization rate, water intrusion-extrusion hysteresis, and porous materials' flexibility. It was demonstrated that the dynamic hysteresis of water intrusion into superhydrophobic nanopores can be controlled by the flexibility of a porous material. This opens a new area of applications for flexible MOFs, namely, a smart pressure-transmitting fluid, capable of dissipating undesired vibrations depending on their frequency. Finally, nanotriboelectric experiments were conducted and the results showed that a porous material's topology is important for electricity generation while not affecting the dynamic hysteresis at any speed.

Anomalously slow relaxation of interacting liquid nanoclusters confined in a porous medium

Anomalously slow relaxation of clusters of a liquid confined in a disordered system of pores has been studied for the (water-L23 nanoporous medium) system. The evolution of the system of confined liquid clusters consists of a fast formation stage followed by slow relaxation of the system and its decay. The characteristic time for the formation of the initial state is τ(p)∼10 s after the reduction of excess pressure after complete filling. Anomalously slow relaxation has been observed for times of 10(1)-10(5) s, and decay has been observed at times of >10(5) s. The time dependence of the volume fraction θ of pores filled with the confined liquid is described by a power law θ∼t(-α) with the exponent α<0.15. The exponent α and temperature dependence α(T) are qualitatively described theoretically for the case of a slightly polydisperse medium in a mean-field approximation with the inclusion of the interaction of liquid clusters and averaging over various degenerate local configurations of clusters. In this approximation, slow relaxation is represented as a continuous transition through a sequence of metastable states of the system of clusters with a decreasing barrier.

Synergetic effect of temperature and pressure on energetic and structural characteristics of {ZIF-8 + water} molecular spring

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and particularly their subclass - Zeolite Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIFs) - are used for a variety of applications including particularly energy storage. Highly porous MOFs mixed with non-wetting liquids can be used to form molecular springs (MS) for efficient mechanical and thermal energy storage/transformation. In this paper by means of high-pressure calorimetry the energetic characteristics of {ZIF-8 + water} MS were investigated in wide temperature and pressure ranges. Unexpectedly XRD measurements show that the concomitant effects of temperature and pressure on {ZIF-8 + water} MS leads to an irreversible change of the ZIF-8 structure, transforming its symmetry from cubic to orthorhombic. Whereas, previous studies have demonstrated the stability of ZIF-8 under either high pressure or high temperature.

Fluid infiltration pressure for hydrophobic nanochannels

We investigate water infiltration pressure for hydrophobic nanochannels through molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that the entrance energy barrier significantly raises the infiltration pressure, which makes the classic Young-Laplace equation invalid for nanochannels. As the channel surface is tuned from superhydrophobic to hydrophobic, the infiltration pressure is greatly reduced mainly due to the decrease of the capillary pressure (Young-Laplace equation) caused by the contact angle change, while the contribution of the entrance energy barrier to the infiltration pressure, which is termed entrance barrier pressure, increases from 25% to 60%.

Kinetics of the dispersion transition and nonergodicity of a system consisting of a disordered porous medium and a nonwetting liquid

An approach has been proposed for the description of the dispersion transition of a nonwetting liquid in confinement. This approach describes intrusion and extrusion processes for the ground state of a disordered porous medium, which is characterized by the formation of a fractal percolation cluster. The observed transition of the system of liquid nanoclusters in confinement to a metastable state in a narrow range of degrees of filling and temperatures has been explained by the appearance of a potential barrier owing to fluctuations of the collective "multiparticle interaction" of liquid nanoclusters in neighboring pores of different sizes on the shell of the fractal percolation cluster of filled pores. The energy of the metastable state forms a potential relief in the space of the porous medium with many maxima and minima. The volume of the dispersed liquid in the metastable state has been calculated within the analytical percolation theory for the ground state with the infinite percolation cluster. The extrusion-time distribution function of pores has been calculated. It has been found that the volume of the nonwetting liquid remaining in the porous medium decreases with time according to a power law. Relaxation in the system under study is a multistep process involving discontinuous equilibrium and overcoming of many local maxima of the potential relief. The formation of the metastable state of the trapped nonwetting liquid has been attributed to the nonergodicity of the disordered porous medium. The model reproduces the observed dependence of the volume of the dispersed liquid both on the degree of filling and on the temperature.

Thermal effect on the dynamic infiltration of water into single-walled carbon nanotubes

Thermally induced variation in wetting ability in a confined nanoenvironment, indicated by the change in infiltration pressure as water molecules enter a model single-walled carbon nanotube submerged in aqueous environment, is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. The temperature-dependent infiltration behavior is impacted in part by the thermally excited radial oscillation of the carbon nanotube, and in part by the variations of fundamental physical properties at the molecular level, including the hydrogen bonding interaction. The thermal effect is also closely coupled with the nanotube size effect and loading rate effect. Manipulation of the thermally responsive infiltration properties could facilitate the development of a next-generation thermal energy converter based on nanoporous materials.