The MOF incorporating carboxyl and pyridyl groups within its cavity selectively adsorbs CO2 over ethyne. Image credit: Martin Schröder
UK researchers have designed a metal–organic framework that, unusually, selectively adsorbs CO2 over ethyne by a dynamic gate-opening mechanism and has potential applications in fuel gas separation.
Metal–organic frameworks, or MOFs, comprise metal clusters or ions complexed to organic ligands, forming an extended crystalline, often porous, structure. The pore sizes can be tuned by careful design, and as such, they are widely investigated for gas storage and separation technologies. However, most MOFs are usually selective to ethyne adsorption over CO2, limiting their application, as the intermolecular interactions between ethyne and the MOF are stronger.
Now, Martin Schröder at the University of Nottingham, and colleagues, have synthesised a MOF that shows dynamic phase changing behaviour induced by CO2, inverting the usual selectivity to ethyne.
Read the full article in Chemistry World
Link to journal article
Selective CO2 uptake and inverse CO2/C2H2 selectivity in a dynamic bifunctional metal–organic framework
W Yang et al
Chem. Sci., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2sc20443f
