Highly porous Co(ii)-salicylate metal–organic framework: synthesis, characterization and magnetic properties

A new porous Co(II)-salicylate metal–organic framework material has been synthesized hydrothermally through the reaction of Co(II) chloride with sodium salicylate under mild alkaline pH conditions. To get an idea about the structural aspect of the material from the powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) pattern, MAUD program has been successfully utilized and the assigned peaks match very well with a new tetragonal phase (space group, P4mm) having the unit cell parameters: a = b = 12.957 (0.042) Å; c = 12.738 (0.019) Å; α = β = γ = 90°, V = 2138.73 Å3. N2adsorption/desorption analyses suggested the material is highly porous in nature having high BET surface area and pore dimensions of 2.0–3.0 nm, which is within the range of small mesopores. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the H2O molecules may be removed from the framework without collapsing the structure and the material is stable up to ca. 573 K. The material is characterized thoroughly by using different characterization tools such as TEM, SEM, UV-visible reflectance spectroscopy, FT IR spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) analysis was employed to understand the oxidation state of the cobalt atom and presence of other elements within the framework. The material shows interesting magnetic properties, where the magnetic moments monotonically increase with the decrease in temperature down to 9 K. Below 9 K there is a steep increase in magnetization on further lowering the temperature, thereby suggesting the onset of a long range ferromagnetic transition with ferromagnetic Curie temperature, TC = 8.5 K. Furthermore, the M-H curve at 2 K shows a clear hysteresis loop with a coercive field 150 Oe and remnant magnetization 0.8 μB/f.u.