Yabing He

Microporous metal-organic framework with potential for carbon dioxide capture at ambient conditions

Carbon dioxide capture and separation are important industrial processes that allow the use of carbon dioxide for the production of a range of chemical products and materials, and to minimize the effects of carbon dioxide emission. Porous metal-organic frameworks are promising materials to achieve such separations and to replace current technologies, which use aqueous solvents to chemically absorb carbon dioxide. Here we show that a metal-organic frameworks (UTSA-16) displays high uptake (160 cm(3) cm(-3)) of CO(2) at ambient conditions, making it a potentially useful adsorbent material for post-combustion carbon dioxide capture and biogas stream purification. This has been further confirmed by simulated breakthrough experiments. The high storage capacities and selectivities of UTSA-16 for carbon dioxide capture are attributed to the optimal pore cages and the strong binding sites to carbon dioxide, which have been demonstrated by neutron diffraction studies.

Multifunctional metal–organic frameworks constructed from meta-benzenedicarboxylate units

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), also known as porous coordination polymers (PCPs), are an emerging type of porous materials which are formed by the self-assembly of metallic centers and bridging organic linkers. Design and synthesis of organic linkers are very critical to target MOFs with desired structures and properties. In this review, we summarize and highlight the recent development of porous MOFs that are constructed from the multicarboxylate ligands containing m-benzenedicarboxylate moieties, and their promising applications in gas storage and separation, heterogeneous catalysis and luminescent sensing.

Microporous metal-organic frameworks for storage and separation of small hydrocarbons

Hydrocarbons are very important energy resources and raw materials for some industrially important products and fine chemicals. There is a need for the discovery of better materials that offer enhanced capacities for safe storage of hydrocarbons. Furthermore, the development of improved separation technologies will lead to significant reduction in energy requirements and costs. In this feature article, we provide an overview of the current status of the emerging microporous metal-organic frameworks for the storage and separation of small hydrocarbons.

A microporous hydrogen-bonded organic framework for highly selective C2H2/C2H4 separation at ambient temperature.

The first microporous hydrogen-bonded organic framework with permanent porosity and exhibiting extraordinarily highly selective adsorptive separation of C(2)H(2) and C(2)H(4) at ambient temperature has been established.

A Homochiral Microporous Hydrogen-Bonded Organic Framework for Highly Enantioselective Separation of Secondary Alcohols

A homochiral microporous hydrogen-bonded organic framework (HOF-2) based on a BINOL derivative has been synthesized and structurally characterized to be a uninodal 6-connected {3(3)5(5)6(6)7} network. This new HOF exhibits not only a permanent porosity with the BET of 237.6 m(2) g(-1) but also, more importantly, a highly enantioselective separation of chiral secondary alcohols with ee value up to 92% for 1-phenylethanol.

A robust doubly interpenetrated metal-organic framework constructed from a novel aromatic tricarboxylate for highly selective separation of small hydrocarbons.

A microporous metal-organic framework, for the first time, has been developed for highly selective separation of industrially important C(1), C(2) and C(3) hydrocarbons at room temperature.

A Rod-Packing Microporous Hydrogen-Bonded Organic Framework for Highly Selective Separation of C2H2/CO2 at Room Temperature†

Self-assembly of a trigonal building subunit with diaminotriazines (DAT) functional groups leads to a unique rod-packing 3D microporous hydrogen-bonded organic framework (HOF-3). This material shows permanent porosity and demonstrates highly selective separation of C2H2/CO2 at ambient temperature and pressure.

A series of metal–organic frameworks with high methane uptake and an empirical equation for predicting methane storage capacity

A series of metal–organic frameworks (NOTT-100a (MOF-505a), NOTT-101a, NOTT-102a, NOTT-103a and NOTT-109a) with variable open copper sites and micropore spaces have been examined as potential adsorbents for methane storage. They exhibit high adsorption capacities for methane at 300 K and 35 bar (181–196 cm3 (STP) cm−3). Supposing that the deliverable amount of methane is defined as the difference in the amount of methane adsorbed between 5 bar and 35 bar, NOTT-101a, NOTT-102a and NOTT-103a exhibit excellent deliverable capacities of methane (136–140 cm3 (STP) cm−3), comparable to the highest of all previously reported MOF materials. The gravimetric methane uptake in this MOF series systematically increases with increasing porosity, while their methane storage pore occupancy decreases with increasing pore size. The fact that gravimetric methane uptakes correlate well with their corresponding pore volumes enables us to derive an empirical equation: C = −126.69 × Vp2 + 381.62 × Vp − 12.57, where C is the excess gravimetric methane storage capacity at 35 bar and 300 K in cm3 (STP) g−1, and Vp is the pore volume of a MOF material in cm3 g−1. This empirical equation can predict the methane storage performance of previously reported microporous MOF materials of Vp less than 1.50 cm3 g−1 reasonably well, and thus provides a convenient method to screen MOFs for methane storage purposes.

High separation capacity and selectivity of C2 hydrocarbons over methane within a microporous metal-organic framework at room temperature.

A separation story! A microporous metal-organic framework (UTSA-34) of non-interpenetrated binodal (4,6)-connected ybh network with interconnected cages of about 12.8 Å has been realised to exhibit highly selective separation of C(2) hydrocarbons from methane with a separation capacity of 3.0 mol  kg(-1) and selectivity of 35 at room temperature (see figure).

A microporous lanthanide-tricarboxylate framework with the potential for purification of natural gas

A novel robust three-dimensional lanthanide organic framework with high thermal stability has been demonstrated to exhibit the potential for purification of natural gas in nearly pure form from an 8-component gas mixture at room temperature.