title: The effect of guest molecular architecture and host crystallinity upon the mechanism of the intercalation reaction.
abstract: The intercalation process of alpha-zirconium phosphate (alpha-ZrP) was investigated by using two alpha-ZrP samples with different levels of crystallinity and two structurally different intercalating molecules, i.e., linear hexylamine and non-planar cyclohexylamine. The results show that the intercalation energy barrier, which is affected by both host alpha-ZrP and guest intercalating molecules, has a significant effect on the intercalation process. When the intercalation energy barrier is relatively low, the interlayer distance of alpha-ZrP expands continuously with increasing amount of intercalating molecules. When the energy barrier reaches a certain level, the interlayer distance expansion becomes stepwise. The observed differences in the intercalation process correspond well with the geometric arrangement of the intercalated molecules inside the gallery of alpha-ZrP.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77842-3012, USA.
authors.forename: Luyi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: O'Reilly
authors.forename: Deyuan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Boo
authors.forename: H-J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Sue
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clearfield