Exploitation of Pore Structure for Increased CO₂ Selectivity in Type 3 Porous Liquids

CO₂ capture requires materials with high adsorption selectivity and an industrial ease of implementation. To address these needs, a new class of porous materials was recently developed that combines the fluidity of solvents with the porosity of solids. Type 3 porous liquids (PLs) composed of solvents and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) offer a promising alternative to current liquid carbon capture methods due to the inherent tunability of the nanoporous MOFs. However, the effects of MOF structural features and solvent properties on CO₂-MOF interactions within PLs are not well understood. Herein experimental and computational data of CO₂ gas adsorption isotherms were used to elucidate both solvent and pore structure influences on ZIF-based PLs. The roles of the pore structure including solvent size exclusion, structural environment, and MOF porosity on PL CO₂ uptake were examined. A comparison of the pore structure and pore aperture was performed using ZIF-8, ZIF-L, and amorphous-ZIF-8. Adsorption experiments here have verified our previously proposed solvent size design principle for ZIF-based PLs (1.8× ZIF pore aperture). Furthermore, the CO₂ adsorption isotherms of the ZIF-based PLs indicated that judicious selection of the pore environment allows for an increase in CO₂ selectivity greater than expected from the individual PL components or their combination. This nonlinear increase in the CO₂ selectivity is an emergent behavior resulting from the complex mixture of components specific to the ZIF-L + 2'-hydroxyacetophenone-based PL.