Tetranuclear CuIICluster as the Ten Node Building Unit for the Construction of a Metal–Organic Framework for Efficient C2H2/CO2Separation

Abstract

AbstractRational design of high nuclear copper cluster‐based metal–organic frameworks has not been established yet. Herein, we report a novel MOF (FJU‐112) with the ten‐connected tetranuclear copper cluster [Cu4(PO3)2(μ2‐H2O)2(CO2)4] as the node which was capped by the deprotonated organic ligand of H4L (3,5‐Dicarboxyphenylphosphonic acid). With BPE (1,2‐Bis(4‐pyridyl)ethane) as the pore partitioner, the pore spaces in the structure ofFJU‐112were divided into several smaller cages and smaller windows for efficient gas adsorption and separation.FJU‐112exhibits a high separation performance for the C2H2/CO2separation, which were established by the temperature‐dependent sorption isotherms and further confirmed by the lab‐scale dynamic breakthrough experiments. The grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations (GCMC) studies show that its high C2H2/CO2separation performance is contributed to the strong π‐complexation interactions between the C2H2molecules and framework pore surfaces, leading to its more C2H2uptakes over CO2molecules.