A lactam-functionalized copper bent diisophthalate framework displaying significantly enhanced adsorption of CO₂ and...

The design and construction of porous materials for high-efficient adsorption-based separation of CH₄ from C₂H₂ and CO₂ is a fundamental goal in the chemical industry. In this work, a lactam-functionalized bent diisophthalate linker, 5,5'-(1-methylpyridin-2(1H)-one-3,5-diyl) diisophthalic acid, was judiciously designed and utilized to construct a dicopper paddlewheel-based MOF under solvothermal conditions. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction revealed that the resulting solid is a three-dimensional mfj-type network incorporating Lewis-acidic copper sites and accessible lactam groups as two different kinds of functional sites. Furthermore, gas adsorption studies indicated that the material exhibited great promise for C₂H₂/CH₄ and CO₂/CH₄ separations. In particular, compared to the unmodified parent compound, the resultant MOF exhibits 9.4% and 12.9% higher C₂H₂ and CO₂ uptake capacities and 48.0% and 28.3% higher C₂H₂/CH₄ and CO₂/CH₄ adsorption selectivities for the equimolar gas mixtures at 298 K and 1 atm, despite the lower specific surface area and pore volume. This work reported the first lactam-functionalized MOF displaying significantly enhanced adsorption of CO₂ and C₂H₂ over CH₄.