Abstract
A series of highly porous MOFs were deliberately targeted to contain a 12-connected rare earth hexanuclear cluster and quadrangular tetracarboxylate ligands. The resultant MOFs have an underlying topology of
, and are thus (4,12)-c
-MOFs. This targeted rare earth
-MOF platform offers the potential to assess the effect of pore functionality and size,
ligand functionalization and/or expansion, on the adsorption properties of relevant gases. Examination of the gas adsorption properties of these compounds showed that the
-MOF-2 analogues, constructed from rigid ligands with a phenyl, naphthyl, or anthracene core exhibited a relatively high degree of porosity. The specific surface areas and pore volumes of these analogs are amongst the highest reported for RE-based MOFs. Further studies revealed that the Y-
-MOF-2 shows promise as a storage medium for methane (CH
) at high pressures. Furthermore, Y-
-MOF-2 shows potential as a separation agent for the selective removal of normal butane (
-C
H
) and propane (C
H
) from natural gas (NG) as well as interesting properties for the selective separation of
-C
H
from C
H
or isobutane (iso-C
H
).