Understanding porous materials with pair distribution functions

Porous materials are widely used in industry and are among the most promising candidates to facilitate the transformation to a sustainable society. Their controlled synthesis and rational design require an understanding of their formation mechanisms, structural/phase transition mechanisms, and structure-property relations. However, challenges are posed by the difficulty in characterizing structures that do not have long-range ordering. Here, we examine how pair distribution function (PDF) analysis can tackle this problem. We show that PDF analysis enriches our knowledge of the formation, structural/phase transitions, and structure-property relations of porous materials. We also point out that current PDF studies have not fully addressed key issues in porous materials research. We highlight potential PDF studies of porous materials and provide future research directions. Answers to questions raised will be enabled by the development of instrumentation, experimental strategies, and data modeling methodologies, with collective efforts from the PDF and porous materials communities.