Manufacture of dense coatings of Cu3(BTC)2 (HKUST-1) on α-alumina

By a seeding approach coatings of copper benzene tricarboxylate (Cu-3(BTC)(2), also known as HKUST-1) are obtained on alpha-alumina. The obtained crystal densities, order and intergrowth improve the best results reported up to now in the literature for any metal-organic framework material. The effect of synthesis conditions on the morphology and crystal size Of Cu-3(BTC)(2) was determined to optimize the strategies for the synthesis of continuous layers. Seeding with coordination polymers of different morphology resulted in control of crystal growth of the coating. Two seeding suspensions yielded the best intergrowth of crystals. Spin-coating the support with a one-dimentional Cu(II)-BTC coordination polymer suspension resulted in a high density coating with randomly oriented crystals of similar to 2 mu m, while using amorphous MOF precursors (proto-MOFs) as seeds, coatings with crystals of similar to 5 mu m were obtained. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.