We present an in-situ powder X-ray diffraction study on the phase stability and polymorphism of the metal-organic framework ZIF-4, Zn(Imidazolate)₂, at simultaneous high-pressure and high-temperature, up to 8 GPa and 600 °C. The resulting pressure-temperature phase diagram reveals four, previously unknown, high-pressure-temperature ZIF phases. The crystal structures of two new phases – ZIF-4-cp-II and ZIF-hPT-II – were solved by powder diffraction methods. The total energy of ZIF-4-cp-II was evaluated using density functional theory calculations and was found to lie in between that of ZIF-4 and the most thermodynamically stable polymorph, ZIF-zni. ZIF-hPT-II was found to possess a doubly-interpenetrated diamondoid-topology and is isostructural with previously reported Cd(Imidazolate)₂ and Hg(Imidazolate)₂ phases. This phase exhibited extreme resistance to both temperature and pressure. The other two new phases could be assigned with a unit cell and space group, though their structures remain unknown. The pressure-temperature phase diagram of ZIF-4 is strikingly complicated when compared with that of the previously investigated, closely related ZIF-62, and demonstrates the ability to traverse complex energy landscapes of metal-organic systems using the combined application of pressure and temperature.

Time resolved in situ (TRIS) monitoring has revolutionised the study of mechanochemical transformations but has been limited by available data quality. Here we report how a combination of miniaturised grinding jars together with innovations in X-ray powder diffraction data collection and state-of-the-art analysis strategies transform the power of TRIS synchrotron mechanochemical experiments. Accurate phase compositions, comparable to those obtained by ex situ measurements, can be obtained with small sample loadings. Moreover, microstructural parameters (crystal size and microstrain) can be also determined with high confidence. This strategy applies to all chemistries, is readily implemented, and yields high-quality diffraction data even using a low energy synchrotron source. This offers a direct avenue towards the mechanochemical investigation of reactions comprising scarce, expensive, or toxic compounds. Our strategy is applied to model systems, including inorganic, metal-organic, and organic mechanosyntheses, resolves previously misinterpreted mechanisms in mechanochemical syntheses, and promises broad, new directions for mechanochemical research.

We here explore how ball-mill-grinding frequency affects the kinetics of a disulfide exchange reaction. Our kinetic data show that the reaction progress is similar at all the frequencies studied (15–30 Hz), including a significant induction time before the nucleation and growth process starts. This indicates that to start the reaction an initial energy accumulation is necessary. Other than mixing, the energy supplied by the mechanical treatment has two effects: (i) reducing the crystal size and (ii) creating defects in the structure. The crystal-breaking process is likely to be dominant at first becoming less important later in the process when the energy supplied is stored at the molecular level as local crystal defects. This accumulation is taken here to be the rate-determining step. We suggest that the local defects accumulate preferentially at or near the crystal surface. Since the total area increases exponentially when the crystal size is reduced by the crystal-breaking process, this can further explain the exponential dependence of the onset time on the milling frequency.

Accumulation of radiation damage from synchrotron X-rays leads to complete amorphization of the initially crystalline metal–organic frameworks ZIF-4, ZIF-62, and ZIF-zni. The mechanism of this transformation is studied as a function of time and temperature and is shown to be non-isokinetic.