Reaction duration-dependent formation of two Cu(ii)-MOFs with selective adsorption properties of CH over CH.

The formation of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) under given reaction conditions depends on various factors including reaction duration, temperature, used solvent, system pH, and others. Among them, the reaction duration is relatively less investigated. In this work, based on a Cu(ii)-MOF system, the reaction duration was found to play an important role in directing the formation of two different products, (NH2(CH3)2)[Cu12(DDPN)6(H2O)10Cl] (BUT-301) on shorter reaction time and (NH2(CH3)2)2[Cu(DDPN)] (BUT-302) on longer reaction time, when CuCl2 reacted with 3,5-di(3,5-dicarboxylphenyl)nitrobenzene (H4DDPN) in a DMA/MeOH mixed solvent at 120 °C. With increasing the reaction duration, BUT-301 can transform into BUT-302. Both MOFs have three-dimensional (3D) framework structures. BUT-301 is constructed from paddle-wheel Cu2(COO)4 units and DDPN4- ligands as four-connected linkers, while BUT-302 is assembled from mononuclear Cu(ii) centers connecting the ligands as also four-connected linkers but in a monodentate coordination fashion. N2 adsorption confirmed that both MOFs are porous materials with the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas of 1953 and 561 m2 g-1, respectively. Interestingly, both BUT-301 and -302 show selective adsorption properties of C3H4 over C3H6. The C3H4/C3H6 adsorption selectivities were calculated to be 1.9 and 4.4 at 0.1 bar and 298 K by the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) for a 1 : 99 C3H4/C3H6 mixture, respectively.