Adsorptive separation is very important in industry. Generally, the process uses porous solid materials such as zeolites, activated carbons, or silica gels as adsorbents. With an ever increasing need for a more efficient, energy-saving, and environmentally benign procedure for gas separation, adsorbents with tailored structures and tunable surface properties must be found. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), constructed by metal-containing nodes connected by organic bridges, are such a new type of porous materials. They are promising candidates as adsorbents for gas separations due to their large surface areas, adjustable pore sizes and controllable properties, as well as acceptable thermal stability. This critical review starts with a brief introduction to gas separation and purification based on selective adsorption, followed by a review of gas selective adsorption in rigid and flexible MOFs. Based on possible mechanisms, selective adsorptions observed in MOFs are classified, and primary relationships between adsorption properties and framework features are analyzed. As a specific example of tailor-made MOFs, mesh-adjustable molecular sieves are emphasized and the underlying working mechanism elucidated. In addition to the experimental aspect, theoretical investigations from adsorption equilibrium to diffusion dynamics via molecular simulations are also briefly reviewed. Furthermore, gas separations in MOFs, including the molecular sieving effect, kinetic separation, the quantum sieving effect for H2/D2 separation, and MOF-based membranes are also summarized (227 references).

Selective gas adsorption and separation in metal–organic frameworks

The development in the field of coordination polymers or metal-organic coordination networks, MOCNs (metal-organic frameworks, MOFs) is assessed in terms of property investigations in the areas of catalysis, chirality, conductivity, luminescence, magnetism, spin-transition (spin-crossover), non-linear optics (NLO) and porosity or zeolitic behavior upon which potential applications could be based.

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Engineering coordination polymers towards applications

Lanthanide-based luminescent hybrid materials.

Homochiral Metal–Organic Frameworks for Asymmetric Heterogeneous Catalysis

http://yaghi.berkeley.edu/pdfPublications/04MOFs.pdf

Metal-organic frameworks: a new class of porous materials

Tailoring of porous materials involves not only chemical synthetic techniques for tailoring microscopic properties such as pore size, pore shape, pore connectivity, and pore surface reactivity, but also materials processing techniques for tailoring the meso- and the macroscopic properties of bulk materials in the form of fibers, thin films, and monoliths. These issues are addressed in the context of five specific classes of porous materials:  oxide molecular sieves, porous coordination solids, porous carbons, sol−gel-derived oxides, and porous heteropolyanion salts. Reviews of these specific areas are preceded by a presentation of background material and review of current theoretical approaches to adsorption phenomena. A concluding section outlines current research needs and opportunities.

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Lucy M. Bull

Papers

Tailored Porous Materials