This paper aimed to investigate the structural and chemical changes of Ag-natrolite (Ag16Al16Si24O80·16H2O, Ag-NAT) in the presence of different pressure transmitting mediums (PTMs), such as N2, O2 and CH4, up to ~8 GPa and 250 °C using in situ synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and Rietveld refinement. Pressure-induced insertion occurs in two stages in the case of N2 and O2 runs, as opposed to the CH4 run. First changes of the unit cell volume in N2, O2 and CH4 runs are observed at 0.88(5) GPa, 1.05(5) GPa and 1.84(5) GPa with increase of 5.7(1)%, 5.5(1)% and 5.7(1)%, respectively. Subsequent volume changes of Ag-natrolite in the presence of N2 and O2 appear at 2.15(5) GPa and 5.24(5) GPa with a volume increase of 0.8(1)% and a decrease of 3.0(1)%, respectively. The bulk moduli of the Ag-NAT change from 42(1) to 49(7), from 38(1) to 227(1) and from 49(3) to 79(2) in the case of N2, O2 and CH4 runs, respectively, revealing that the Ag-NAT becomes more incompressible after each insertion of PTM molecules. The shape of the channel window of the Ag-NAT changes from elliptical to more circular after the uptake of N2, O2 and CH4. Overall, the experimental results of Ag-NAT from our previous data and this work establish that the onset pressure exponentially increases with the molecular size. The unit cell volumes of the expanded (or contracted) phases of the Ag-NAT have a linear relationship and limit to maximally expand and contract upon pressure-induced insertion.
Keywords: Rietveld refinement; pressure-induced insertion; silver-exchanged natrolite; synchrotron X-ray diffraction.