Open Access Article
Xinyu Li
,
Shijie Li*,
Jiahao Liu,
Jin Zhang
,
Yunpeng Ren and
Jianguo Zhao*
Engineering Research Center of Coal-based Ecological Carbon Sequestration Technology of the Ministry of Education, Shanxi Datong University, Datong 037009, China. E-mail: li841974@sina.com; jianguozhao9150@163.com
First published on 1st July 2024
Bimetallic metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown more impressive performance in gas adsorption compared with monometallic MOFs. Herein, a Cu–Zn bimetallic metal–organic framework (Zn/Cu-BTC) was synthesized via a one-pot method, and its structure, thermal stability and CO2 adsorption property were investigated and compared with those of corresponding monometallic Cu-BTC and Zn-BTC. The results showed that Zn/Cu-BTC has a specific ortho-octahedral crystal morphology with a unique X-ray diffraction peak, the atomic ratio of Zn to Cu is about 1
:
5, and it remained stable at a temperature up to 490 K. In Zn/Cu-BTC, Cu2+ played a role in increasing the specific surface area and porosity of the MOF and improving the gas adsorption performance. The CO2 adsorption of Zn/Cu-BTC is lower than that of Cu-BTC but much higher than that of Zn-BTC, and CO2 adsorption heat was 30.52 kJ mol−1, which indicated physical adsorption. In addition, Zn/Cu-BTC had higher CO2/N2 adsorption selectivity compared with Zn-BTC and Cu-BTC, with a maximum value of 17. This study can be a reference for the research on improving the adsorption selectivity of gases by constructing bimetallic MOFs.
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of crystalline porous materials with a periodic network structure formed by inorganic metal clusters linked to organic ligands through self-assembly. They are of great interest in the field of gas adsorption, separation2–4 and storage5,6 because of their high porosity, large specific surface area, regular pore channels, adjustable pore size and exposed active sites.7–9 Recently, the application of MOFs in CO2 capture has attracted much attention.10–12 Qasem et al.13 studied the adsorption of CO2 by MOF-5 and MOF-117; the results emphasized that MOF-5 is a good choice for CO2 storage applications at a pressure of less than 5 bar, whereas MOF-177 is a superior storage medium for the same purpose at higher pressures (≥10 bar). Cho et al.14 synthesized Co-MOF-74 crystals through microwave heating with a high CO2 adsorption capacity (288 mg g−1) and excellent selectivity over N2 (>25
:
1) at 298 K. Chen et al.15 successfully synthesized MOF-74 (Ni) by microwave assistance at 313 K within 60 min, and its CO2 adsorption capacity at 298 K was as high as 5.22 mmol g−1, which was nearly 6 times higher than that of commercial activated carbon (0.89 mmol g−1).
Generally, the CO2 adsorption capacity of MOFs could be further improved through modifications. Previous studies revealed that the CO2 capacity of ZIF-8 could be greatly enhanced via carbonization16 or amino-functionalization modification.17 Moreover, the addition of a second metal to the MOF to construct a bimetallic MOF can improve the stability of the MOF and enhance the interaction with CO2, which can further improve its CO2 adsorption capacity.18 Zhou et al.19 synthesized bimetallic MIL-101(Cr, Mg) by doping Mg in MIL-101(Cr); the CO2 adsorption capacity of MIL-101(Cr, Mg) reached 3.28 mmol g−1 at 298 K and 1 bar, with an increase of 40% in comparison with MIL-101(Cr). Meanwhile, the CO2/N2 adsorption selectivity of MIL-101(Cr, Mg) was significantly enhanced. The study by Kadi et al.20 indicated that the Cu1.5Mg1.5(BTC)2 MOF showed significant enhancement of its CO2 adsorption capacity (23.85 mmol g−1) compared with Cu-BTC MOF (5.95 mmol g−1) and Mg-BTC MOF (4.57 mmol g−1). Ling et al.21 synthesized bimetallic MgCu-MOF-74 by the one-pot method, and the CO2 uptake under visible light was superior to that of the corresponding monometallic MOF-74.
Inspired by the above research, herein, we prepared Zn–Cu bimetallic MOF (named as Zn/Cu-BTC) by the one-pot method and compared its pore structure and CO2 adsorption with that of the corresponding monometallic Zn-BTC and Cu-BTC.
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CH3OH
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H2O = 2
:
1
:
1, v/v) by stirring with a magnetic stirrer (rotation speed: 350 rpm) for 5 h. After that, 1.2 mL triethylamine was slowly added dropwise to the mixed solution with continuous stirring (rotation speed: 400 rpm) for 20 min, after which the mixed solution was poured into a hydrothermal kettle and reacted at 358 K for 24 h, followed by washing with DMF twice and methanol four times and finally dried in an oven at 363 K for 12 h to produce Zn/Cu-BTC.
The crystal structures of Zn-BTC, Cu-BTC and Zn/Cu-BTC were determined using an X-ray diffractometer (XRD, SmartLab SE, Rigaku Corporation, 30 kV, 10 mA, scan range: 5–30°, scan rate: 2° min−1).
The thermal stabilities of Zn-BTC, Cu-BTC and Zn/Cu-BTC were determined using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA, TG209 F3, NETZSCH Instruments, temperature range: 303–873 K, heating rate: 5 K min−1).
The pore size distributions and gas adsorption properties of Zn-BTC, Cu-BTC and Zn/Cu-BTC were determined by an automated specific surface and porosity analyzer (Quantachrome Nova 4000e, Quantachrome Instruments, 393 K, vacuum (10−3 kPa) degassed for 6 hours before testing); the N2 adsorption/desorption test temperatures were done at 77 K and 298 K, and the CO2 adsorption test temperatures were done at 288 K and 298 K.
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5 (as shown in Table 1), proving the successful synthesis of bimetallic MOF.
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| Fig. 2 The morphologies and X-ray EDS of Cu-BTC (a), Zn-BTC (b) and Zn/Cu-BTC (c), and X-ray diffraction patterns of Zn/Cu-BTC (d), Zn-BTC (e), and Cu-BTC (f). | ||
| Element | Weight% | Atomic% |
|---|---|---|
| C | 47.03 | 60.77 |
| O | 36.24 | 35.16 |
| Zn | 2.80 | 0.66 |
| Cu | 13.92 | 3.40 |
| Total | 100 |
Fig. 2d–f shows the XRD patterns of Zn-BTC, Cu-BTC and Zn/Cu-BTC. The characteristic peaks at 2θ = 6.7°, 9.5°, 11.7° and 13.4° in Fig. 2f correspond to the (200), (220), (222) and (400) crystal planes of Cu-BTC;22 the characteristic peaks at 2θ = 8.5°, 10.8°, 13.5°, 18.3°, 19.2° and 23.7° in Fig. 2e correspond to the (111), (220), (222), (331), (420) and (333) crystal planes of Zn-BTC.23 Fig. 2d shows that bimetallic Zn/Cu-BTC has the same X-ray diffraction peaks as Cu-BTC (predominantly) and Zn-BTC, which is due to the fact that bimetallic MOF generally maintains the crystal structure of the parent material. Furthermore, the characteristic peak at 2θ = 12.8° in the XRD spectrum of Zn/Cu-BTC is unique, which suggests that a new lattice structure was generated in the bimetallic Zn/Cu-BTC, which could be derived from the heating melting and recrystallization of the mixture of Cu(NO3)2·3H2O and Zn(NO3)2·6H2O.
Fig. 3 shows the N2 adsorption isotherms and BJH (Barrett–Joyner–Halenda) pore size distributions of Zn-BTC, Cu-BTC and Zn/Cu-BTC. As shown in Fig. 3a, N2 adsorption by Zn-BTC is a type V isotherm. Due to the low specific surface area and small pore volume of the Zn-BTC pores, the interaction between MOF and adsorbed gas is relatively weak so that the amount of gas adsorbed is relatively low. In addition, with the increase in relative pressure, the gas adsorption tends to increase due to capillary coalescence and generates a hysteresis loop, which is manifested by the fact that the adsorption amount at desorption is larger than that at adsorption at the same relative pressure. In contrast, Cu-BTC and Zn/Cu-BTC possessed larger specific surface areas and pore volumes, as well as smaller average pore sizes (as indicated in Table 2). Both of them possess good N2 adsorption performance. The adsorption isotherms are Langmuir type, i.e., the adsorption amount of the gas rises rapidly at low pressure and the isotherm plateaus after reaching a certain value. This is due to the fact that the external surface area of the samples is much smaller than the internal surface area of the pores, and the gas adsorption is mainly controlled by the volume of the micropores; thus, the adsorption amount changes very little with the increase in gas pressure. In addition, the larger adsorption capacity of N2 for Cu-BTC compared to Zn/Cu-BTC is related to its relatively larger pore specific surface area and pore volume.
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| Fig. 3 The N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms (a–c) and pore size distribution (d–f) of Zn-BTC, Cu-BTC and Zn/Cu-BTC. | ||
| Materials | BET surface area (m2 g−1) | Pore volume (cm3 g−1) | Average pore size (nm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zn-BTC | 14.06 | 0.04 | 9.31 |
| Cu-BTC | 1282.51 | 0.76 | 2.37 |
| Zn/Cu-BTC | 767.24 | 0.34 | 4.44 |
In comparison, the solvent in the framework of Zn/Cu-BTC starts to evaporate only when the temperature is higher than 490 K, and it enters into rapid decomposition after the temperature is higher than 570 K. In addition, the decomposition process of Zn/Cu-BTC consists of two stages, one of which is the decomposition of the crystal structure formed by Cu2+ between 570 K and 620 K, and the other is the decomposition of the crystal structure formed by Zn2+ between 620 K and 730 K. Therefore, this indicates that Zn/Cu-BTC is stable at temperatures up to 490 K. This is due to the fact that the bimetallic MOF contains two types of metal active sites that enhance the stability of the backbone structure.24
Using Zn/Cu-BTC for the adsorption of CO2 in atmosphere, it is crucial to explore the adsorption selectivity for CO2/N2. Usually, the adsorption selectivity calculation of the two-component gas mixture in porous materials can be predicted using single-component gas adsorption isotherms based on IAST (Ideal Adsorbed Solution Theory).26,27 Herein, we utilized the pyGAPS (Python General Adsorption Processing Suite) software package28 to fit the adsorption isotherms of CO2 and N2 at 298 K, and the CO2/N2 gas mixture content was set to 1/9 (vol/vol). The N2 adsorption isotherms and the CO2 adsorption isotherms were fitted (Fig. 6a–c) by Henry's law (eqn (1)) and dual-site Langmuir model (eqn (2)), respectively.29
| ni(P) = KHP | (1) |
![]() | (2) |
The CO2/N2 selectivity curves (Fig. 6d) of Zn-BTC, Cu-BTC and Zn/Cu-BTC were generated directly using pyGAPS. As shown, the weak dependence of selectivity on pressure was observed for all the three MOFs. The maximum value of CO2/N2 selectivity were 6.8 for Zn-BTC and 11.6 for Cu-BTC. In particular, the CO2/N2 adsorption selectivity of Zn/Cu-BTC is higher than that of Zn-BTC and even Cu-BTC, with a maximum value of 17. It is speculated that the high CO2/N2 adsorption selectivity of Zn/Cu-BTC is the result of the combined effect of its specific topological structure and numerous unsaturated metal active sites. On the one hand, the morphology and pore structure of Zn/Cu-BTC are more conducive to CO2 adsorption and penetration into its interior; on the other hand, Zn/Cu-BTC has two metal centers, which have more diversified active sites and adsorption sites than monometallic MOFs, resulting in a higher CO2 adsorption selectivity.
The heat of CO2 adsorption of Zn/Cu-BTC was calculated from CO2 adsorption isotherms measured at close temperatures (ΔT ≤ 10 K) using the finite difference of the thermodynamic Clausius–Clapeyron equation.30
| qst = R[T1T2/(T2 − T1)](ln(P2) − ln(P1))N | (3) |
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