Structural Regulation and Light Hydrocarbon Adsorption/Separation of Three Zirconium-Organic Frameworks Based on Different V-Shaped Ligands.

On the basis of different V-shaped ligands, three zirconium-organic frameworks (, , and ) have been successfully constructed. By regulating spatial configuration and functional groups of organic ligands, these as-synthesized Zr-MOFs (MOF = metal-organic framework) display distinct structures and different light hydrocarbon adsorption/separation capabilities. , with a double-walled interpenetrated 3D primitive cubic (pcu) framework, exhibits good gas-adsorption capacity but not prominent selective separation ability. Through regulating sizes and torsion angles of the organic ligands, possesses a 2D square lattice (sql) network, while displays a non-interpenetrated 3D pcu framework. Furthermore, by regulating functional groups on the ligands, shows prominent CH uptake (101.2 cm·g) and the best CH/CH selectivity (230.5, 1:1) among the three Zr-MOFs, and shows a significant CH/CH selectivity (105.6, 1:1). This work demonstrates the feasibility of structural regulation for MOF materials in the light hydrocarbon adsorption/separation field.