Design of chiral Co(ii)-MOFs and their application in environmental remediation and waste water treatment

Abstract

The present work reports the construction of new Co-MOFs based on an amide based bispyrazole ligand and different carboxylic acids with potential applications in the sphere of CO₂ adsorption and photocatalytic waste water treatment. Four multifunctional MOFs, with a wide variety of dimensionality, porosity and surface characteristics were exploited for this purpose. The unique bis-bidentate nature of the ligand with two chelating compartments along with a semi-rigid backbone leads to some interesting chiral MOFs. Detail self-assembly studies reveals that both helicity as well as local environments around the metal centres are responsible for chirality. A detailed investigation shows the importance of these materials as chiral zeolite analogues for environmental remediation. The much improved photocatalytic degradation of a representative toxic dye molecule highlights the advantages of MOFs over the usual metal oxide based semiconductors as remediation materials. Furthermore, MOFs with an ability to capture CO₂ gas, offer a solution to environmental pollutions.