In-situ Powder X-ray Diffraction of Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks under Mechanical Impact Induced Water Intrusion

The pressurised intrusion of non-wetting liquid in nanoporous materials has emerged as a promising mechanism to yield high-performance energy absorption and impact protection. Herein we propose to use in-situ powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) at beamline ID09 to study Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIFs) under high-rate liquid intrusion under mechanical impact. The aim is to determine the structural evolution of ZIFs and examine any dynamic effect or intrinsic timescale that determine the energy absorption in practical applications. We carried out our first experiment MA6203 to obtain preliminary results which validated the feasibility of the new method we developed and informed the strategy of improving our setup to be able to test at a higher pressure and measure both intrusion and extrusion processes, which is the main goal of this new beamtime.