No Arabic abstract
Metal organic framework (MOF) materials in general, and MOF-74 in particular, have promising properties for many technologically important processes. However, their instability under humid conditions severely restricts practical use. We show that this instability and the accompanying reduction of the CO$_2$ uptake capacity of MOF-74 under humid conditions originate in the water dissociation reaction H$_2$O$rightarrow$OH+H at the metal centers. After this dissociation, the OH groups coordinate to the metal centers, explaining the reduction in the MOFs CO$_2$ uptake capacity. This reduction thus strongly depends on the catalytic activity of MOF-74 towards the water dissociation reaction. We further show that-while the water molecules themselves only have a negligible effect on the crystal structure of MOF-74-the OH and H products of the dissociation reaction significantly weaken the MOF framework and lead to the observed crystal structure breakdown. With this knowledge, we propose a way to suppress this particular reaction by modifying the MOF-74 structure to increase the water dissociation energy barrier and thus control the stability of the system under humid conditions.
We show that the water dissociation reaction H$_2$O$rightarrow$OH+H in the confined environment of MOF-74 channels can be precisely controlled by the addition of the noble gas He. Elucidating the entire reaction process with ab initio methods and infrared (IR) spectroscopy, we prove that the interaction between water molecules is critical to the formation of water clusters, which reduce the dissociation barrier by up to 37% and thus influence the reaction significantly. Our time-resolved IR measurements confirm that the formation of these clusters can be suppressed by introducing He gas, providing unprecedented control over water dissociation rates. Since the water dissociation reaction is the cause of the structural instability of MOF-74 in the presence of water, our finding of the reaction mechanism lays the groundwork for designing water stab
Using infrared spectroscopy combined with ab initio methods we study reactions of H$_2$O and CO inside the confined spaces of Zn-MOF-74 channels. Our results show that, once the water dissociation reaction H$_2$O$;rightarrow;$OH+H takes place at the metal centers, the addition of 40 Torr of CO at 200 $^{circ}$C starts the production of formic acid via OH+H+CO$;rightarrow;$HCO$_2$H. Our detailed analysis shows that the overall reaction H$_2$O+CO$;rightarrow;$HCO$_2$H takes place in the confinement of MOF-74 without an external catalyst, unlike the same reaction on flat surfaces. This discovery has several important consequences: It opens the door to a new set of catalytic reactions inside the channels of the MOF-74 system, it suggests that a recovery of the MOFs adsorption capacity is possible after it has been exposed to water (which in turn stabilizes its crystal structure), and it produces the important industrial feedstock formic acid.
Recently, an aziridinium lead iodide perovskite was proposed as a possible solar cell absorber material. We investigated the stability of this material using a density-functional theory with an emphasis on the ring strain associated with the three-membered aziridinium cation. It is shown that the aziridinium ring is prone to opening within the PbI$_3$ environment. When exposed to moisture, aziridinium lead iodide can readily react with water. The resultant product will not likely be a stoichiometric lead halide perovskite structure.
Molecular dynamics simulations combined with periodic electronic structure calculations are performed to decipher structural, thermodynamical and dynamical properties of the interfaced vs. confined water adsorbed in hexagonal 1D channels of the 2D layered electrically conductive Cu3(HHTP)2 and Cu3(HTTP)2 metal-organic frameworks (HHTP=2,3,6,7,10,11-hexahydroxytriphenylene and HTTP = 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexathiotriphenylene). Comparing water adsorption in bulk vs. slab models of the studied 2D MOFs shows that water is preferentially adsorbed on the framework walls via forming hydrogen bonds to the organic linkers rather than by coordinating to the coordinatively unsaturated open-Cu2+ sites. Theory predicts that in Cu3(HTTP)2 the van der Waals interactions are stronger which helps the MOF maintain its layered morphology with allowing very little water molecules to diffuse into the interlayer space. Data presented in this work are general and helpful in implementing new strategies for preserving the integrity as well as electrical conductivity of porous materials in aqueous solutions.
Microporous organosilicas assembled from polysilsesquioxane (POSS) building blocks are promising materials that are yet to be explored in-depth. Here, we investigate the processing and molecular structure of bispropylurea bridged POSS (POSS-urea), synthesised through the acidic condensation of 1,3-bis(3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl)urea (BTPU). Experimentally, we show that POSS-urea has excellent functionality for molecular recognition toward acetonitrile with an adsorption level of 74 mmol/g, which compares favourably to MOFs and zeolites, with applications in volatile organic compounds (VOC). The acetonitrile adsorption capacity was 132-fold higher relative to adsorption capacity for toluene, which shows the pores are highly selective towards acetonitrile adsorption due to their size and arrangement. Theoretically, our tight-binding density functional and molecular dynamics calculations demonstrated that this BTPU based POSS is microporous with an irregular placement of the pores. Structural studies confirm maximal pore sizes of around 1 nm, with POSS cages possessing an approximate edge length of approximately 3.16 Angstrom