Rapid preparation of flexible porous coordination polymer nanocrystals with accelerated guest adsorption kinetics

Porous coordination polymers, in particular flexible porous coordination polymer networks that change their network structure on guest adsorption, have enormous potential in applications involving selective storage, separation and sensing. Despite the expected significant differences in their adsorption properties, porous coordination polymer nanocrystals remain largely unexplored, and there have been no reports about studies on flexible porous coordination polymer nanocrystals, mainly due to a lack of preparation methods. Here, we present a new technique for the rapid preparation of porous coordination polymer nanocrystals that combines non-aqueous inverse microemulsion with ultrasonication. Uniform nanocrystals of {[Zn(ip)(bpy)]}(n) (ip = isophthalate, bpy = 4,4'-bipyridyl; CID-1), a flexible porous coordination polymer, have been prepared by this method and analysed using field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction. A model for particle formation and growth is presented and discussed. Adsorption experiments with methanol show that the overall adsorption capacities of nanoparticles and bulk are almost identical, but the shapes of the sorption isotherms differ significantly and the adsorption kinetics increase dramatically.