AER/ I Chemistry Seminar with Jiahong Li

About the event

Presenter: Jiahong Li
Group: Zhang
Title: Carboxylate-based Metal–organic Frameworks: Solvent-free Synthesis, Catalytic Activity and Thermodynamic Analysis

Abstract: Over the last three decades, more than 90,000 metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been identified and characterized. Due to the plethora of structural variances and chemical tunability, MOFs continue to find applications in catalysis, chemical separations, and green technologies. Typically, MOFs are synthesized via solvothermal methods, which often pose several disadvantages: i) utilization of toxic reagents, ii) difficulty of pure-phase isolation, iii) irregularities in structural and physical properties of the desired product phase. To overcome these challenges, it is imperative to develop innovative synthetic methods. Herein, our research interest is developing a phase-selective, high-yield, solvent-free, green synthetic method for the MOF systems, which possess multiple topological isomers but can be synthesized from the identical precursor reactants. Aluminum trimesates (Al–BTCs) MOFs are one of those systems which can generate three distinct phases, MIL-100(Al), MIL-96(Al), and MIL-110(Al), from the Al3+ salt and the trimesate (BTC) linkers. We have reported a solvent-free phase-selective synthetic method to prepare Al–BTCs, which demonstrated similar physical and structural parameters to the conventional hydrothermally synthesized Al-BTCs. To help ascertain the energetic landscape of the Al-BTCs MOF system, combustion calorimetric measurements were performed on phase pure activated MIL-100(Al), MIL-96(Al), and MIL-110(Al), as well as the mixed-phase MIL-100/96(Al), and the iron and chromium analogs, MIL-100(Fe, Cr). Our results demonstrate the enthalpic stability of MIL-100(Al) and MIL-96(Al) in relation to its binary oxides and ligand, and the metastability of the MIL-110(Al) phase. These results are in an agreement with experimental observations. Additionally, the solvent-free synthetic method will be applied to a broader range of the MOF materials. Lastly, the catalytic activities of those solvent-free synthesized MOFs will be evaluated compared to their hydrothermally prepared counterparts.

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Date & Time: Apr 23, 2021 03:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)