Quantification of gas-accessible microporosity in metal-organic framework glasses

20 December 2021, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Metal-organic framework (MOF) glasses are a new class of microporous glass materials with immense potential for applications ranging from gas separation to optics and solid electrolytes. Due to the inherent difficulty to determine the atomistic structure of amorphous glasses, the intrinsic structural porosity of MOF glasses is only poorly understood. In this work, the porosity features of a series of prototypical MOF glass formers from the family of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) and their corresponding glasses is investigated comprehensively. CO2 gas sorption at 195 K allows to follow the evolution of microporosity when transforming from the crystalline to the glassy state of these materials. Based on these data, the pore volume and the real density of the ZIF glasses is quantified for the first time. Additional hydrocarbon sorption data (n-butane, propane and propylene) together with X-ray total scattering experiments prove that the porosity features (in particular the pore size and the pore limiting diameter) of the ZIF glasses depend on the types of organic linkers present in the glass network. This allows formulating first design principles for a targeted tuning of the intrinsic microporosity of MOF glasses. Importantly, these principles are counterintuitive and contrary to established porosity design concepts for crystalline MOFs but show similarities to strategies previously developed for porous polymers.

Keywords

metal-organic frameworks
glasses
MOF glasses
porosity
gas separation
disorder
amorphous materials

Supplementary materials

Title
Description
Actions
Title
Supplementary Information
Description
Supplementary Information
Actions

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.