Exceptionally Low Shear Modulus in a Prototypical Imidazole-Based Metal-Organic Framework

Jin-Chong Tan, Bartolomeo Civalleri, Chung-Cherng Lin, Loredana Valenzano, Raimondas Galvelis, Po-Fei Chen, Thomas D. Bennett, Caroline Mellot-Draznieks, Claudio M. Zicovich-Wilson, and Anthony K. Cheetham
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 095502 – Published 29 February 2012
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Abstract

Using Brillouin scattering, we measured the single-crystal elastic constants (Cij’s) of a prototypical metal-organic framework (MOF): zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF)-8 [Zn(2-methylimidazolate)2], which adopts a zeolitic sodalite topology and exhibits large porosity. Its Cij’s under ambient conditions are (in GPa) C11=9.522(7), C12=6.865(14), and C44=0.967(4). Tensorial analysis of the Cij’s reveals the complete picture of the anisotropic elasticity in cubic ZIF-8. We show that ZIF-8 has a remarkably low shear modulus Gmin1GPa, which is the lowest yet reported for a single-crystalline extended solid. Using ab initio calculations, we demonstrate that ZIF-8’s Cij’s can be reliably predicted, and its elastic deformation mechanism is linked to the pliant ZnN4 tetrahedra. Our results shed new light on the role of elastic constants in establishing the structural stability of MOF materials and thus their suitability for practical applications.

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  • Received 14 December 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.095502

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Jin-Chong Tan1, Bartolomeo Civalleri2, Chung-Cherng Lin3, Loredana Valenzano2,4, Raimondas Galvelis5, Po-Fei Chen6, Thomas D. Bennett1, Caroline Mellot-Draznieks5,7, Claudio M. Zicovich-Wilson8, and Anthony K. Cheetham1,*

  • 1Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, United Kingdom
  • 2Department of Inorganic, Physical, and Materials Chemistry, NIS Centre of Excellence, and INSTM Reference Center, University of Turin, via Pietro Giuria 7, 10125 Torino, Italy
  • 3Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei, 115 Taiwan
  • 4Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, Michigan 49931-1295, USA
  • 5Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London, WCH1 0AJ, United Kingdom
  • 6Department of Earth Sciences and Graduate Institute of Geophysics, National Central University, Jhongli, 32001 Taiwan
  • 7Laboratoire de Chimie et Biologie des Métaux, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, CNRS, UMR 5249, CEA, DSV/iRTSV, 17 rue des Martyrs, F-38054, Grenoble cedex 9, France
  • 8Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos, Avenida Universidad 1001, 62209 Cuernavaca, Mexico

  • *akc30@cam.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 108, Iss. 9 — 2 March 2012

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