Tuning the Adsorption Properties of UiO-66 via Ligand Functionalization

UiO-66 is one of the few known water-stable MOFs that are readily amenable to direct ligand substitution. In this work, UiO-66 has been synthesized with amino-, nitro-, methoxy-, and naphthyl-substituted ligands to impart polar, basic, and hydrophobic characteristics. Pure-component CO2, CH4, N2, and water vapor adsorption isotherms were measured in the materials to study the effect of the functional group on the adsorption behavior. Heats of adsorption were calculated for each pure gas on each material. The results indicate that the amino-functionalized material possesses the best adsorption properties for each pure gas due to a combination of polarity and small functional group size. The naphthyl-functionalized material exhibits a good combination of inhibited water vapor adsorption and high selectivity for CO2 over CH4 and N2.