Science Daily January 24, 2019
The porous nanomaterials that are currently used for gas separation and storage are not tunable: their pores are persistent and rigid. Researchers in Japan designed a porous coordination polymer with copper atoms linked by butterfly-shaped ligands made from isophthalic acid and phenothiazine-5,5-dioxide. The material was comprised of tiny nanocages with protruding channels. At very low temperatures, the channels were very narrow; as the temperature was increased, the channels opened more and more, allowing gas molecules to move between the cages. A gas could move or become locked within the material depending on the size of the gas’s molecules and how wide the material’s channels were at a given temperature. The material adsorbed a gas at high temperatures and held it in when ambient temperatures were applied, effectively storing the gas. The discovery could lead to improved gas separation and storage applications… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ