Finely tuning MOFs towards high-performance post-combustion CO2 capture materials

Abstract

CO₂ capture science and technology, particularly for the post-combustion CO₂ capture, has become one of very important research fields, due to great concern of global warming. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with a unique feature of structural fine-tunability, unlike the traditional porous solid materials, can provide many and powerful platforms to explore high-performance adsorbents for post-combustion CO₂ capture. Until now, several strategies for finely tuning MOF structures have been developed, in which either the larger quadrupole moment and polarizability of CO₂ are considered: metal ion change (I), functional groups attachment (II) and functional group insertion (III), vary the electronic nature of the pore surface; or targeting the smaller kinetic diameter of CO₂ over N₂ is focused on: framework interpenetration (IV), ligand shortening (V) and coordination site shifting (VI) contract the pore size of frameworks to improve their CO₂ capture properties. In this review, from the viewpoint of synthetic materials scientists/chemists, we would like to introduce and summarize these strategies based upon recent work published by other groups and ourselves.