A Series of Functionalized Zirconium Metal–Organic\nCages for Efficient CO₂/N₂ Separation

Abstract

Global\nwarming associated with CO₂ emission has led\nto frequent extreme weather events in recent years. Carbon capture\nusing porous solid adsorbents is promising for addressing the greenhouse\neffect. Herein, we report a series of robust metal–organic\ncages (MOCs) featuring various functional groups, such as methyl and\namine groups, for CO₂/N₂ separation. Significantly,\nthe amine-group-functionalized MOC-QW-3-NH₂ displays the\nbest selective CO₂ adsorption performance, as confirmed\nby single-component adsorption and transient breakthrough experiments.\nThe distinct CO₂ adsorption mechanism has been well studied\nvia theoretical calculations, confirming that the amine groups play\na vital role for efficiently selective CO₂ adsorption resulting\nfrom hierarchical adsorbate–framework interaction.