Elastic properties of liquid and solid argon in nanopores

We have measured sorption isotherms and determined the intrinsic longitudinal elastic modulus β(Ar,ads) of nanoconfined material via ultrasonic measurements combined with a special effective medium analysis. In the liquid regime the adsorbate only contributes to the measured effective properties when the pores are completely filled and the modulus is bulklike. At partial fillings its contribution is cancelled out by the high compressibility of the vapour phase. In contrast, at lower temperatures frozen argon as well as underlying liquid surface layers cause a linear increase of the effective longitudinal modulus upon filling. During sorption the contribution of the liquid surface layers near the pore wall β(Ar,surf) increases with the thickness of the solid layers reaching the bulk value β(Ar,liquid) only in the limit of complete pore filling. We interpret this effect as due to the gradual stiffening of the solid argon membrane. The measurements and their analysis show that longitudinal ultrasonic waves are well suited to the study of the elastic properties and liquid-solid phase transitions in porous systems. This method should also help to detect the influence of nanoconfinement on elastic properties in further research.