Mechanical Properties

Mechanical properties of MOFs such as the bulk, shear and Young’s modulus, alongside the hardness and thermal expansion of materials are incredibly important for industrial applications (1). The group have expertise in the use of variable temperature powder X-ray diffraction, high pressure powder X-ray diffraction and nanoindentation (2, 3) to elucidate the properties of crystalline metal-organic framework materials.

However, the mechanical properties of the bulk hybrid glass state are also of importance, given their potentially unusual properties which cannot be found elsewhere in the material spectrum. We therefore use a variety of techniques to probe the bulk, and nanoscale mechanical response of this new family of glasses (3).

Selected References

(1) Mechanical properties in metal-organic frameworks: Emerging opportunities and challenges for device functionality and technological applications

N. C. Burtch, J. Heinen, T. D. Bennett, D. Dubbeldam, M. D. Allendorf*, Adv. Mater., 2017, 1704124.

(2) Mechanical properties of dense zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs): A high-pressure X-ray diffraction, nanoindentation and computational study of the zinc framework Zn(Im)2, and its lithium-boron analogue, LiB(Im)4

T. D. Bennett, J. C. Tan, S. A. Moggach, R. Galvelis, C. Mellot-Draznieks, B. A. Reisner, A. Thirumurugan, D. R. Allan, A. K. Cheetham*, Chem. Eur. J., 2010, 16, 10684.

(3) Mechanical properties and processing techniques of bulk metal-organic framework glasses

S. Li, R. Limbach, A. Shirzadi, J. C. Walmsley, D. N. Johnstone, P. A. Midgley, L. Wondraczek, T. D. Bennett,* J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2019, 141, 2, 1027-1034.