Design and synthesis of different sized polyhedral channel MOF materials for the separation of CO2/N2

Abstract

A fractal polyhedral pore structural MOFs (Cu-TATB) is synthesized from the coordination of tridentate ligands (H3TATB) and Cu4 clusters. This material is characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis. The structure contains two different pore structures, including closed octahedral cages and open tetrakaidecahedron cages. The material has been successfully utilized for the separation of CO2/N2 due to the fractal structure of the channel with different pore sizes. Under optimized temperature, Cu-TATB adsorbed a large amount of CO2 and only negligible amount of N2, and the selectivity reaches 27. Breakthrough experiments demonstrated that this material can efficiently separate N2 and CO2. This structure further demonstrates the infinite potential of 3D MOFs with diverse pore structures in applications such as CO2 adsorption and separation.