title: Tunable Rare Earth fcu-MOF Platform: Access to Adsorption Kinetics Driven Gas/Vapor Separations via Pore Size Contraction.
abstract: Reticular chemistry approach was successfully employed to deliberately construct new rare-earth (RE, i.e., Eu(3+), Tb(3+), and Y(3+)) fcu metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with restricted window apertures. Controlled and selective access to the resultant contracted fcu-MOF pores permits the achievement of the requisite sorbate cutoff, ideal for selective adsorption kinetics based separation and/or molecular sieving of gases and vapors. Predetermined reaction conditions that permitted the formation in situ of the 12-connected RE hexanuclear molecular building block (MBB) and the establishment of the first RE-fcu-MOF platform, especially in the presence of 2-fluorobenzoic acid (2-FBA) as a modulator and a structure directing agent, were used to synthesize isostructural RE-1,4-NDC-fcu-MOFs based on a relatively bulkier 2-connected bridging ligand, namely 1,4-naphthalenedicarboxylate (1,4-NDC). The subsequent RE-1,4-NDC-fcu-MOF structural features, contracted windows/pores and high concentration of open metal sites combined with exceptional hydrothermal and chemical stabilities, yielded notable gas/solvent separation properties, driven mostly by adsorption kinetics as exemplified in this work for n-butane/methane, butanol/methanol, and butanol/water pair systems.
authors.affiliation: Functional Materials Design, Discovery and Development Research Group (FMD3), Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (AMPM), Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Dong-Xu
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Functional Materials Design, Discovery and Development Research Group (FMD3), Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (AMPM), Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Youssef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Belmabkhout
authors.affiliation: Functional Materials Design, Discovery and Development Research Group (FMD3), Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (AMPM), Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Osama
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shekhah
authors.affiliation: Functional Materials Design, Discovery and Development Research Group (FMD3), Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (AMPM), Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Functional Materials Design, Discovery and Development Research Group (FMD3), Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (AMPM), Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Karim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Adil
authors.affiliation: Functional Materials Design, Discovery and Development Research Group (FMD3), Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (AMPM), Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Amy J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Cairns
authors.affiliation: Functional Materials Design, Discovery and Development Research Group (FMD3), Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center (AMPM), Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eddaoudi