A zinc(II) metal organic framework based on flexible o-phenylenediacetate and rigid 4,4′-azobis(pyridine) ligands: synthesis, crystal structure and hydrogen gas adsorption property

Abstract

A new three-dimensional (3D) metal organic framework, [Zn-2(mu(4)-o-pda)(2)(mu-abpy)](n) (1), has been synthesized by the hydrothermal reaction and characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, thermal analysis, X-ray powder diffraction, and single crystal X-ray diffraction techniques (o-H(2)pda = o-phenylenediacetic acid and abpy = 4,4'-azobis(pyridine)). Single crystal X-ray diffraction study reveals that complex 1 exhibits a binodal (3,7)-connected three-dimensional framework (3D) with the point symbol of (3.5(2))(3(2).4(4).5(7).6(7).7). Thermal analysis reveal that complex 1 is stable up to 300 degrees C. In order to investigate the potential of 1 in gas storage applications, we performed experiments and atomically detailed simulations to obtain H-2 adsorption isotherm at a pressure range of 0-1 atm at 77 K.