Xenon adsorption-induced flexibility of the zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-4 observed by in situ 129Xe NMR spectroscopy

Tobias Bode; Wen-Long Xue; Yutong Wang; Karen M. Garcia Alvarez; Silvia Paasch; Andreas Schneemann; Sebastian Henke; Eike Brunner

doi:10.1039/D5CC04620C

Xenon adsorption-induced flexibility of the zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-4 observed by in situ¹²⁹Xe NMR spectroscopy

Tobias Bode,^a Wen-Long Xue,

^b Yutong Wang,^c Karen M. Garcia Alvarez,^c Silvia Paasch,^a Andreas Schneemann,

^c Sebastian Henke

^b and Eike Brunner

*^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Chair of Bioanalytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
E-mail: eike.brunner@tu-dresden.de

^b Inorganic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, TU Dortmund, 44227 Dortmund, Germany

^c Chair of Inorganic Chemistry I, Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany

Abstract

In situ ¹²⁹Xe NMR spectroscopy reveals an unexpected, xenon adsorption-induced flexibility of ZIF-4. Beyond a certain threshold pressure, xenon induces a structural transition at low temperature. This behaviour is in contrast to CO₂, where the material remains rigid, as shown by in situ ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. Adsorbed gas species are significantly confined in the narrow and anisotropic pore system with restricted atomic/molecular reorientation.

This article is part of the themed collection: Emerging Trends in Advanced Functional Porous Materials

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5CC04620C
Article type: Communication
Submitted: 12 Aug 2025
Accepted: 24 Sep 2025
First published: 24 Sep 2025
This article is Open Access

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Chem. Commun., 2025, Advance Article

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Xenon adsorption-induced flexibility of the zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-4 observed by in situ ¹²⁹Xe NMR spectroscopy

T. Bode, W. Xue, Y. Wang, K. M. G. Alvarez, S. Paasch, A. Schneemann, S. Henke and E. Brunner, Chem. Commun., 2025, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D5CC04620C

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Chemical Communications