Ultramicropore engineering by dehydration to enable molecular sieving of H2 by calcium trimesate

DOI: 10.1002/anie.202006414

Authors: Michael Zaworotko (University of Limerick) , Soumya Mukherjee (University of Limerick) , Shoushun Chen (University of Limerick) , Andrey Bezrukov (University of Limerick) , Matthew Mostrom (University of South Florida) , Victor Terskikh (Western University) , Douglas Franz (University of South Florida College of Arts & Sciences) , Shiqiang Wang (University of Limerick) , Mansheng Chen (Hengyang Normal University) , Amrit Kumar (University of Limerick) , Yining Huang (Western University) , Brian Space (University of South Florida College of Arts & Sciences)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Angewandte Chemie International Edition

State: Published (Approved)
Published: May 2020
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 20500

Abstract: The high energy footprint of commodity gas purification and ever‐increasing demand for gases require new approaches to gas separation. Kinetic separation of gas mixtures through molecular sieving can enable “ideal” separation through molecular size or shape exclusion. Physisorbents must exhibit just the right pore diameter to enable such ideal separation, but the 0.3‐0.4 nm range relevant to small gas molecules is hard to control with precision. Herein, we report that dehydration of the ultramicroporous metal‐organic framework Ca‐trimesate, Ca(HBTC) . H2O (H3BTC = trimesic acid), bnn‐1‐Ca‐H2O, affords a narrow pore variant, Ca(HBTC), bnn‐1‐Ca. Whereas bnn‐1‐Ca‐H2O (pore diameter 0.34 nm) exhibits ultra‐high CO2/N2, CO2/CH4 and C2H2/C2H4 binary selectivities, bnn‐1‐Ca (pore diameter 0.31 nm) offers ideal selectivities for H 2 /CO 2 and H2/N2 under cryogenic conditions. Ca‐trimesate, the first physisorbent to exhibit H2 sieving under cryogenic conditions, could be prototypal for a potentially general approach to exert precise control over pore diameter in physisorbents.

Journal Keywords: porous materials; Crystal engineering; physisorption; Hydrogen; size-sieving

Diamond Keywords: Gas Separation

Subject Areas: Materials, Chemistry


Instruments: I11-High Resolution Powder Diffraction

Added On: 11/06/2020 11:42

Discipline Tags:

Chemistry Materials Science Chemical Engineering Engineering & Technology Metal-Organic Frameworks Metallurgy Organometallic Chemistry

Technical Tags:

Diffraction X-ray Powder Diffraction