Metal Insertion in a Methylamine-Functionalized Zirconium Metal-Organic Framework for Enhanced Carbon Dioxide Capture

The reaction of ZrCl4 with 2',3',5',6'-tetramethylamino-p-terpheny1-4,4 ''-dicarboxylic acid (H(2)tpdc-4CH(2)NH(2) center dot 3HCl) in the presence of NaF affords Zr6O4(OH)(2.1)F-1.9(tpdc-4CH(2)NH(2.3) center dot 3HCl)(6) (1), which is a new member of the Zr6O4(OH)(4)(dicarboxylate linker), or UiO-68 family, and exhibits high porosity with BET and Langmuir surface areas of 1910 m(2)/g and 2220 m(2)/g, respectively. Remarkably, fluoride ion incorporation in the zirconium clusters results in increased thermal stability, marking the first example of enhancement in the stability of a UiO framework by this defect-restoration approach. Although material 1 features four alkylamine groups on each organic linker, the framework does not exhibit the high CO2 uptake that would be expected for reaction between CO2 and the amine groups to form carbamic acid or ammonium carbamate species. The absence of strong CO2 adsorption can likely be attributed to protonation at some of the amine sites and the presence of counterions. Indeed, exposure of material 1 to acetonitrile solutions of the organic bases 1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalene (DMAN) or trimethylamine, affords a partially deprotonated material, which exhibits enhanced CO2 uptake. Exposure of basic amine sites also facilitates the postsynthetic chelation of copper(I) ([Cu(MeCN)(4)]center dot CF3SO3) to yield material 2 with an enhanced CO2 uptake of 4 wt % at 0.15 bar, which is double that of the parent framework 1.