Metal-Organic Frameworks for the Capture of Trace Aromatic Volatile Organic Compounds

Air pollution, typically "haze air," is getting worse in the urban areas of many countries worldwide. The development of advanced materials for the removal of air pollutants is of great significance for protecting public health. We herein present two promising metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that show high capture capacities for aromatic volatile organic compounds even at low pressure and high temperature, e.g. benzene uptakes of 1.65 and 0.71 mmol g(-1) at 0.12 kPa and 80 degrees C. Breakthrough experiments verify their excellent performance in capturing trace benzene in humid air, also showing them to be comparable with some benchmark materials, including Carboxen 1000, PAF-1, MIL-101 (Cr), and so on. Furthermore, the capture performance is well interpreted by the single-crystal structures of guest-loaded phases, where distinct adsorption sites, multiple synergistic host-guest and guest-guest interactions, and adaptive local flexibility are disclosed.