A Series of Functionalized Zirconium Metal-Organic Cages for Efficient CO2/N2 Separation

Global warming associated with CO2 emission has led to frequent extreme weather events in recent years. Carbon capture using porous solid adsorbents is promising for addressing the greenhouse effect. Herein, we report a series of robust metal-organic cages (MOCs) featuring various functional groups, such as methyl and amine groups, for CO2/N-2 separation. Significantly, the amine-group-functionalized MOC-QW-3-NH2 displays the best selective CO2 adsorption performance, as confirmed by single-component adsorption and transient breakthrough experiments. The distinct CO2 adsorption mechanism has been well studied via theoretical calculations, confirming that the amine groups play a vital role for efficiently selective CO2 adsorption resulting from hierarchical adsorbate-framework interaction.

Automated summary

The study focused on a robust series of metal-organic cages (MOCs) with various functional groups for CO2/N-2 separation, with the amine-group-functionalized MOC-QW-3-NH2 displaying the best selective CO2 adsorption performance. The research confirmed the vital role of amine groups in efficiently selective CO2 adsorption, attributed to the hierarchical adsorbate-framework interaction.