Sustainable Capture of Aromatic Volatile Organic Compounds by a Pyrene-Based Metal–Organic Framework under Humid Conditions

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry Vol. 59; no. 13; pp. 9029 - 9036
• Main Authors: Sudan, Sylvain, Gładysiak, Andrzej, Valizadeh, Bardiya, Lee, Jung-Hoon, Stylianou, Kyriakos C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 06.07.2020
• ISSN: 0020-1669; 1520-510X
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c00883

The threat posed by the presence of artificial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the environment is a widely acknowledged fact, both for environmental issues and human health concerns. Ever-increasing production requires the continuous development of technologies toward the removal of these substances. In recent years, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown a great promise toward the capture of VOCs, but their stability in humid conditions still remains a major challenge, thus hindering their widespread development. To tackle this obstacle, we designed a 3-dimensional and porous MOF, named SION-82, for the capture of small aromatic VOCs, relying solely on π–π interactions. SION-82 captures benzene efficiently (107 mg/g) in dry conditions, and no uptake decrease was observed in the presence of high relative humidity for at least six cycles. Unlike HKUST-1 and MOF-74­(Co), SION-82 possesses two vital characteristics toward sustainable benzene capture under humid conditions: moisture stability and reusability. In addition, SION-82 captures benzene under humid conditions more efficiently compared to the hydrolytically stable UiO-66, highlighting the impact of having an active site for benzene capture that is not affected by water. SION-82 can additionally capture other aromatic VOCs, showing pyridine and thiophene uptake capacities of 140 and 160 mg/g, respectively.