Crystal size dependence on gate opening phenomenon of ZIF-8

Capture and sequestration of anthropogenic CO2 is a grand challenge of 21st Century. Metal-organic frameworks, in particular, Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), wherein metals are bridged to organic linkers are a new class of materials showing extraordinary capability for CO2 capture. It has been shown that a dramatic increase in gas adsorption occurs at a critical pressure in ZIF-8 due to interaction of adsorbate molecule and this phenomenon is named as “gate opening”. Only limited work is available on the effect of crystal size on the properties of ZIF. Recent studies have shown that structural flexibility in ZIF-8 goes beyond gas-induced gate-opening effect to understand the adsorption behavior. The present proposal aims to study crystal dependent adsorption behavior of CO2 in ZIF-8 to elucidate adsorption mechanism using inelastic neutron scattering at TOSCA.