Morphology Design of IRMOF-3 Crystal by Coordination Modulation

A one-pot synthesis design on shape-controlled growth of Zn-based isoreticular metalorganic framework (i.e., IRMOF-3) was carried out in this work with the controllable crystal morphological evolution from simple cubes to several complex shapes. A new synthetic protocol was devised where poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), noble metal source (AgNO3), mixed solvents (N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF)ethanol mixture) and tetramethylammonium bromide (TMAB) were mutually introduced to the reaction medium as surfactant, adjuvant, accelerator, and structure-directing agent (SDA), respectively. Meanwhile, the crystallization process was investigated by a series of time-dependent experiments. Indeed, the added modulators and crystallization time were able to regulate the growth and thus the morphology of the final products. The resulting homogeneous IRMOF-3-Ag-n materials with unique and novel crystal morphologies were characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses (TG-DTA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), infrared spectrum (IR), and optical microscope characterizations. Various shapes of IRMOF-3-Ag-n crystals as sorbents for capturing dibenzothiophene (DBT) were evaluated. Among all the morphology-controlled samples, IRMOF-3-Ag-5 with hollow sphere morphology was demonstrated to show the highest DBT capture capacity due to its unique morphology.