Fluorine extraction from organofluorine molecules to make fluorinated clusters in yttrium MOFs.

A new rare earth based two-dimensional coordination network and a three-dimensional metal-organic framework (MOF) have been synthesized using bicinchoninic acid (BCA) and yttrium(iii) ions. Yttrium dimer nodes are formed in the absence of a modulator, resulting in a 2D layered coordination network (Y-BCA-2D). The presence of fluorinating agents, , 2-fluorobenzoic acid (2-FBA), 2,6-difluorobenzoic acid (2,6-DFBA), and perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) result in μ-F bridged metal hexaclusters (YF) that form a three-dimensional MOF (Y-BCA-3D). It was found that Y can break highly stable C-F bonds in aromatic and aliphatic fluorinated compounds. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) shows the presence of fluorine in the metal cluster which was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). High resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and F Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) also verify the presence of metal-fluorine bonds in the cluster. The Y-BCA-3D MOF selectively adsorbs CO but not N.