Intrusion of liquid electrolytes inside hydrophobic MOF's: contribution of the osmotic pressure

High pressure water intrusion in hydrophobic nanoporous media have been studied in relation with energy storage. It has already been showed that addition of electrolytes in water increases intrusion pressure of liquid leading to an enhancement of storing capacities. We demonstrate here that for a number of salt, a very simple van't Hoff law can explain intrusion and extrusion excess pressures compared with the pure water case. Our results suggest that only pure water can penetrate the pores, the ions being quartered in the bulk liquid around nanoporous medium. This selectivity explains very high pressures for very concentrated ions reported by Tzanis et al (2014). Finally, a partial intrusion of NaI and LiI is observed. This effect could be explained on the basis of particular behaviour or iodide ions over hydrophobic surfaces.