Upscale synthesis of a binary pillared layered MOF for hydrocarbon gas storage and separation

Abstract

Scaling up the synthesis of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) is necessary in order to demonstrate their potential in industrial applications. This requires the development of a cost efficient and environmentally friendly synthesis protocol which necessitates the understanding of the reaction mechanism, especially for more complex binary ligand MOF systems. Herein, we demonstrate the upscale synthesis (≥100 g) of CPL-1[Cu₂(pzdc)₂(pz)]_n using water as the solvent. The MOF is a binary ligand system composed of 2D layers of copper (Cu(II)) coordinated to 2,3-pyrazinedicarboxylate (pzdc²⁻) connected by pyrazine pillars (pz). The reaction conditions were investigated and found to be optimal when using the minimum amount of reagent possible in water by adjusting the pH to 6.4 leading to CPL-1 formation with high yield (95% yields) and space–time yield (660 kg m⁻³ day⁻¹). In addition, the upscaled MOF exhibited similar sorption and separation capacity to the lab scaled one.