Strongly Modified Mechanical Properties and Phase Transition in AlPO4-17 Due to Insertion of Guest Species at High Pressure

Our plain-English summary of Strongly Modified Mechanical Properties and Phase Transition in AlPO4-17 Due to Insertion of Guest Species at High Pressure, by F.G. Alabarse, B. Baptiste, Y. Guarnelli, et al (The Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Nanomaterials and Interfaces, 2023).

The study

• Authors: F.G. Alabarse, B. Baptiste, Y. Guarnelli, B. Joseph, J. Haines
• Journal: The Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Nanomaterials and Interfaces
• Published: 2023;127(29):14528-14533
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

The porous aluminophosphate AlPO4-17 with a hexagonal erionite structure, exhibiting very strong negative thermal expansion, anomalous compressibility, and pressure-induced amorphization, was studied at high pressure by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction in the penetrating pressure transmitting media N2, O2, and Ar. Under pressure, these guest species were confirmed to enter the pores of AlPO4-17, thus completely modifying its behavior. Pressure-induced collapse in the xy plane of AlPO4-17 no longer occurred, and this plane exhibited close to zero area compressibility. Pressure-induced amorphization was also suppressed as the elastic instability in the xy plane was removed. Crystal structure refinements at a pressure of 5.5 GPa indicate that up to 28 guest molecules are inserted per unit cell and that this insertion is responsible for the reduced compressibility observed at high pressure. A phase transition to a new hexagonal structure with cell doubling along the a direction was observed above 4.4 GPa in fluid O2.

© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

In plain English

This laboratory study in materials chemistry did not examine asbestos, any fiber exposure, or human health. It studied AlPO4-17, a synthetic porous aluminophosphate whose crystal framework has the same structure as the mineral erionite. The authors compressed small synthetic crystals and powders of this material at pressures up to 6 GPa inside diamond anvil cells filled with nitrogen, oxygen or argon. They measured the crystal structure by X-ray diffraction at the Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste in Italy. They found that argon, nitrogen and oxygen all entered the material's pores. In oxygen, the pore content rose to up to 28 molecules per unit cell at pressures up to 4 GPa. Filling the pores changed how the material compressed. In oxygen and nitrogen, one plane of the crystal became nearly incompressible. The empty material loses its ordered crystal structure (amorphization) just above 2 GPa, but the filled material showed no tendency to do so. In oxygen, a change to a new crystal structure appeared just above 4.1 GPa. The authors concluded that the gases readily enter the pores and markedly change the material's mechanical properties.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Laboratory high-pressure experiment using synchrotron X-ray diffraction on single crystals and powders (materials science, not a health study)
• Who was studied: No people or animals. Synthetic crystals (and ground crystals) of the aluminophosphate AlPO4-17, made in the laboratory and measured at the Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy
• Exposure: No asbestos or fiber exposure was studied. The material was placed under high pressure (studied up to 6 GPa) in nitrogen, oxygen or argon, which could enter its pores
• Main results:
  • Argon, nitrogen and oxygen entered the pores of AlPO4-17 at high pressure. The article calls the inserted guests atoms and molecules
  • Oxygen molecules were seen inside the pores of AlPO4-17
  • In oxygen, the guest content rose to up to 28 molecules per unit cell at pressures up to 4 GPa
  • Area compressibility in the xy plane was 1.2(2) per terapascal in oxygen below the phase transition and 1.8(4) per terapascal in nitrogen above the volume jump. The authors describe both as statistically zero over a range of at least 2 GPa
  • The filled material showed no tendency toward pressure-induced amorphization. In the empty material this amorphization is essentially complete just above 2 GPa
  • In oxygen, a phase transition occurred just above 4.1 GPa. It was consistent with a doubling of the unit cell along a, while keeping hexagonal symmetry
  • In argon, behavior was strongly affected by the argon solidifying at 1.5 GPa
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that argon, nitrogen and oxygen readily enter the pores of AlPO4-17 at high pressure, producing a pronounced change in its mechanical properties
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Good single-crystal data could be obtained only in oxygen, because nitrogen and argon solidify at lower pressures
  • The method used to count guest molecules was reliable only for one relatively large crystal in oxygen
  • Too few extra diffraction spots were observed to work out a detailed model of the new high-pressure structure
  • Powder data could not give accurate distances and angles between atoms

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: erionite, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Crystal Structure.

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