Synthesis of MOF-5 nanostructures by laser ablation method in liquid and evaluation of its properties

Abstract

Capability of pulsed laser ablation (PLA) in liquid environment as a physical bottom-up method to synthesis metal–organic framework MOF-5 has been investigated experimentally for the first time. In this experiment, a high-purity zinc (Zn) target was irradiated by the fundamental wavelength of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser in a solution of dimethylformamide (DMF) containing terephthalic acid. A variety of diagnostics were employed to investigate the properties of MOF-5 nanostructures and to study the effects of laser fluence and concentration of acid on their characteristics. The porous and rod structure of synthesized MOF-5s observed in SEM images and their cubic shape observed in TEM microimages in good agreement with XRD and FTIR spectra confirm the production of MOF-5 nanostructures by PLA method. Results show that size of synthesized MOF-5 nanostructures was decreased with increasing the laser fluence. Furthermore, an amount of produced nanostructures was increased with increasing the ligand concentration in the liquid environment of ablation and laser fluence.