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Updated: Jun 9, 2025

Synthesis and Characterization of Functionalized Metal-organic Frameworks
Published on: September 5, 2014
Trace benzene capture by decoration of structural defects in metal-organic framework materials
Yu Han1, Wenyuan Huang2, Meng He1
1Department of Chemistry, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Abstract:
Capture of trace benzene is an important and challenging task. Metal-organic framework materials are promising sorbents for a variety of gases, but their limited capacity towards benzene at low concentration remains unresolved. Here we report the adsorption of trace benzene by decorating a structural defect in MIL-125-defect with single-atom metal centres to afford MIL-125-X (X = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn; MIL-125, Ti8O8(OH)4(BDC)6 where H2BDC is 1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid). At 298 K, MIL-125-Zn exhibits a benzene uptake of 7.63 mmol g-1 at 1.2 mbar and 5.33 mmol g-1 at 0.12 mbar, and breakthrough experiments confirm the removal of trace benzene (from 5 to <0.5 ppm) from air (up to 111,000 min g-1 of metal-organic framework), even after exposure to moisture. The binding of benzene to the defect and open Zn(II) sites at low pressure has been visualized by diffraction, scattering and spectroscopy. This work highlights the importance of fine-tuning pore chemistry for designing adsorbents for the removal of air pollutants.
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