UC Riverside

In this work, I concentrated on the development of porous materials using different design strategies or methods for a range of applications. Among these porous materials, the metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are the focus of this work. First, on the aspect of different design strategies, I have proposed a “multi-level” division MOFs design strategy and combined it with the pore space partition (PSP) strategy and the bioisosteric replacement (BIS) strategy to develop a series of new MOFs belonging to partitioned acs topology (pacs) type. These new pacs type MOFs achieved the same symmetry at different levels. Given the close connection between the nature of chemical moiety and its symmetry, such unique perspective on ligand symmetry and sub-symmetry in MOF design implicitly translates into the influences on MOF properties. Also, these new pacs type MOFs have excellent water stability, light hydrocarbons and benzene/cyclohexane selective adsorption capacities. These MOFs possess great application prospect. Second, on the aspect of different synthesis methods, I have developed the solvent-free method to synthesize MOFs, as well as carbon materials prepared by using solvent-free-synthesized MOFs as starting materials. I also combined the strategy of “multi-module” with the solvent-free synthesis method. I synthesized a series of complex multi-module pacs type MOFs using the solvent-free method, which has the advantages of short synthesis time, convenient activation, high stability, and good C2H2/CO2 selective adsorption capacity. Carbon materials prepared using the solvent-free method synthesized MOFs also exhibit good oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and light hydrocarbons selective adsorption capacities. Finally, I also studied the “one-pot” in situ synthesis of MOFs containing complex ligands, and obtained a new type of MOF with chirality and helicity based on covalent organic framework (COF) fragments.