Search for: All records

High magnetic fields (up to 17.6 T) in combination with large magnetic field gradients (up to 25 T/m) were successfully utilized in pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR studies of gas and liquid diffusion in nanoporous materials. In this mini-review, we present selected examples of such studies demonstrating the ability of high field PFG NMR to gain unique insights and differentiate between various types of diffusion. These examples include identifying and explaining an anomalous relationship between molecular size and self-diffusivity of gases in a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF), as well as revealing and explaining an influence of mixing different linkers in a ZIF on gas self-diffusion. Different types of normal and restricted self-diffusion were quantified in hybrid membranes formed by dispersing ZIF crystals in polymers. High field PFG NMR studies of such membranes allowed observing and explaining an influence of the ZIF crystal confinement in a polymer on intra-ZIF self-diffusion of gases. This technique also allowed measuring and understanding anomalous single-file diffusion (SFD) of mixed sorbates. Furthermore, the presented examples demonstrate a high potential of combining high field PFG NMR with single-crystal Infrared Microscopy (IRM) for obtaining greater physical insights into the studied diffusion processes. 

Pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR was used in combination with single crystal IR microscopy (IRM) to study diffusion of ethane inside crystals of a mixed linker zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) of the type ZIF-7-8 under comparable experimental conditions. These crystals contain 2-methylimidazolate (ZIF-8 linker) and benzimidazolate (ZIF-7 linker). It was observed that the PFG NMR attenuation curves measured for ethane in ZIF-7-8 exhibit deviations from the monoexponential behaviour, thereby indicating that the ethane self-diffusivity in different crystals of a crystal bed can be different. Measurements of the ethane uptake curves performed by IRM under the same conditions in different ZIF-7-8 crystals of the bed yield different transport diffusivities thus confirming that the rate of ethane diffusion is different in different ZIF-7-8 crystals. The IRM observation that the fractions of ZIF-8 and ZIF-7 linkers are different in different ZIF-7-8 crystals allowed attributing the observed heterogeneity in diffusivities to the heterogeneity in the linker fraction. The quantitative comparison of the average ethane self-diffusivities measured by PFG NMR in ZIF-7-8 with the corresponding data on corrected diffusivities from IRM measurements revealed a good agreement between the results obtained by the two techniques. In agreement with the expectation of smaller aperture sizes in ZIF-7-8 than in ZIF-8, the average ethane self-diffusivities in ZIF-7-8 were found to be significantly lower than the corresponding self-diffusivities in ZIF-8.