Ultrastable Thorium Metal–Organic Frameworks for Efficient Iodine Adsorption
Zi‐Jian Li, Zenghui Yue, Yu Ju, Xiaoling Wu, Yiming Ren, Shaofei Wang, Yongxin Li, Zhi‐Hui Zhang, Xiaofeng Guo, Jian Lin, Jian‐Qiang Wang
Abstract
Two novel thorium-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), namely Th-SINAP-7 and Th-SINAP-8, have been synthesized via the solvothermal reactions of thorium nitrate and 1,4- or 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid in the presence of acid modulators. Bearing the rigid aromatic architectures, Th-SINAP-7 and Th-SINAP-8 exhibit exceptional chemical (from pH 1 to 12) and thermal stabilities (up to 520 °C), as well as ionizing radioresistance (2 × 105 Gy β and γ irradiations). The highly porous nature and conjugated π-electrons of naphthalene on the organic linkers endow high affinity of both MOFs toward I2 molecules owning to the charge transfer between π-electrons of the host networks and the guest iodine molecules, as evidenced by combined techniques including of FTIR, PXRD, SEM-EDS, UV–vis spectroscopy, XPS, and Raman spectroscopy. Particularly, Th-SINAP-8 can efficiently remove >99% I2 from cyclohexane solution and exhibit guest uptake of iodine vapor with an adsorption capacity of 473 mg/g.