Low temperature properties of acetonitrile confined in MCM-41.

The effect of confinement on the phase changes and dynamics of acetonitrile in mesoporous MCM-41 was studied by use of adsorption, FT-IR, DSC, and quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) measurements. Acetonitrile molecules in a monolayer interact strongly with surface hydroxyls to be registered and perturb the triple bond in the C[triple bond]N group. Adsorbed molecules above the monolayer through to the central part of the cylindrical pores are capillary condensed molecules (cc-acetonitrile), but they do not show the hysteresis loop in adsorption-desorption isotherms, i.