Article abstract
Nature Materials 8, 973 - 978 (2009)
Published online: 25 October 2009 | doi:10.1038/nmat2545
Subject Categories: Catalytic materials | Porous materials
Porous organic cages
Tomokazu Tozawa1,2, James T. A. Jones1, Shashikala I. Swamy1, Shan Jiang1, Dave J. Adams1, Stephen Shakespeare1, Rob Clowes1, Darren Bradshaw1, Tom Hasell1, Samantha Y. Chong1, Chiu Tang3, Stephen Thompson3, Julia Parker3, Abbie Trewin1, John Bacsa1, Alexandra M. Z. Slawin4, Alexander Steiner1 & Andrew I. Cooper1
Abstract
Porous materials are important in a wide range of applications including molecular separations and catalysis. We demonstrate that covalently bonded organic cages can assemble into crystalline microporous materials. The porosity is prefabricated and intrinsic to the molecular cage structure, as opposed to being formed by non-covalent self-assembly of non-porous sub-units. The three-dimensional connectivity between the cage windows is controlled by varying the chemical functionality such that either non-porous or permanently porous assemblies can be produced. Surface areas and gas uptakes for the latter exceed comparable molecular solids. One of the cages can be converted by recrystallization to produce either porous or non-porous polymorphs with apparent Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface areas of 550 and 23 m2 g-1, respectively. These results suggest design principles for responsive porous organic solids and for the modular construction of extended materials from prefabricated molecular pores.
- Department of Chemistry and Centre for Materials Discovery, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZD, UK
- Corporate Research & Development Division, Kaneka Corporation 5-1-1, Torikai-Nishi, Settsu, Osaka 566-0072, Japan
- I11 Beamline, Diamond Light Source Limited, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Chilton, Didcot OX11 0DE, UK
- School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews KY16 9ST, UK
Correspondence to: Andrew I. Cooper1 e-mail: aicooper@liv.ac.uk
