Fine-Tuning Apertures of Metal-Organic Cages: Encapsulation of Carbon Dioxide in Solution and Solid State

J Am Chem Soc. 2019 Jul 24;141(29):11621-11627. doi: 10.1021/jacs.9b04520. Epub 2019 Jul 2.

Abstract

Metal-organic cages are potential artificial models for mimicking biological functions due to their capability of selective encapsulation for certain guest molecules. In this work, we designed and synthesized a series of rhombic dodecahedral Ni-imidazolate cages (Ni14L24) with precisely controlled aperture for CO2 encapsulation. The aperture of the cages can be tuned by the strategies of ligand decoration and metal-ion hybridization. Similar to the breathing function of alveoli, CO2 passes through the dynamic aperture into the cages under a pressure of 2.0-3.0 bar in methanol solution, and slowly move out of the cages when the pressure goes down. In the solid state, CO2 is encapsulated and prisoned in the cages under a high pressure of 15.0-30.0 bar or supercritical conditions. By replacing the square-coordinated Ni2+ with Cu2+, the resulting Ni-Cu heteronuclear cage lost the capability of physically encapsulating CO2 even though the aperture's size is only slightly changed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carbon Dioxide / chemistry*
  • Chromatography, Gas
  • Coordination Complexes / chemical synthesis
  • Coordination Complexes / chemistry*
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Imidazoles / chemistry
  • Ligands
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Metal-Organic Frameworks / chemistry*
  • Nickel / chemistry
  • Solutions / chemistry
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization
  • Spectrophotometry, Atomic
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Coordination Complexes
  • Imidazoles
  • Ligands
  • Metal-Organic Frameworks
  • Solutions
  • Carbon Dioxide
  • Nickel