ZnO Nanorod-Induced Heteroepitaxial Growth of SOD Type Co-Based Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Membranes for H2 Separation.

Up to now, the fabrication of well-intergrown Co-based zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) membranes on porous tubular supports is still a major challenge. We report here a heteroepitaxial growth for preparing well-intergrown Co-based ZIFs (ZIF-67 and ZIF-9) tubular membranes with high performance and excellent thermal stability by employing a thin layer of ZnO nanorods acting as both nucleation centers and anchor sites for the growth of metal-organic framework membranes. The results show that well-intergrown Co-ZIF-67 and Co-ZIF-9 membranes are successfully achieved on the ZnO nanorod-modified porous ceramic tubes. This highly active heteroepitaxial growth may be attributed to the fact that the (Zn,Co) hydroxy double salt intermediate produced in situ from ZnO nanorods acts as heteroseeds and enables the uniform growth of Co-based membranes. The H2/CO2 selectivity of the as-prepared Co-ZIF-9 tubular membrane could reach about 23.8 and the H2/CH4 selectivity of Co-ZIF-67 tubular membrane is as high as 45.4. Moreover, the membranes demonstrate excellent stability because of the ZnO nanorods as linkers between the membrane and substrate.

GO-guided direct growth of highly oriented metal-organic framework nanosheet membranes for H2/CO2 separation.

Highly oriented, ultrathin metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes are attractive for practical separation applications, but the scalable preparation of such membranes especially on standard tubular supports remains a huge challenge. Here we report a novel bottom-up strategy for directly growing a highly oriented Zn2(bIm)4 (bIm = benzimidazole) ZIF nanosheet tubular membrane, based on graphene oxide (GO) guided self-conversion of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). Through our approach, a thin layer of ZnO NPs confined between a substrate and a GO ultrathin layer self-converts into a highly oriented Zn2(bIm)4 nanosheet membrane. The resulting membrane with a thickness of around 200 nm demonstrates excellent H2/CO2 gas separation performance with a H2 performance of 1.4 × 10-7 mol m-2 s-1 Pa-1 and an ideal separation selectivity of about 106. The method can be easily scaled up and extended to the synthesis of other types of Zn-based MOF nanosheet membranes. Importantly, our strategy is particularly suitable for the large-scale fabrication of tubular MOF membranes that has not been possible through other methods.

One-pot synthesis of cup-like ZSM-5 zeolite and its excellent oxidative desulfurization performance.

A one-step method to synthesize small size cup-like hollow ZSM-5 single crystals is reported in this paper. Characterization methods show that the product has a typical ZSM-5 structure and most crystals are uniform, mono dispersed crystal shells with distinct hollow structure. The average size of a single crystal is about 350 nm. Every cup-like hollow ZSM-5 crystal can act as a microreactor in the reaction, and the ZSM-5 based catalyst POM-MOF-ZSM-5 (polyoxometalates (POM), metal-organic frameworks (MOF)) shows excellent oxidative desulfurization performance of DBT (dibenzothiophene).

In situ fabrication of a perfect Pd/ZnO@ZIF-8 core-shell microsphere as an efficient catalyst by a ZnO support-induced ZIF-8 growth strategy.

Controllable encapsulation of nanoparticles with metal organic frameworks (MOFs) has been an efficient way to impart the unique chemical and physical properties of the nanoparticles to metal organic frameworks and create new types of multifunctional MOF core-shell materials with enhanced properties. Here, a novel ZnO support-induced encapsulation strategy is reported to efficiently fabricate a Pd/ZnO@ZIF-8 core-shell catalyst, with Pd/ZnO as the core and ZIF-8 as the shell. The novel synthesis procedure involves first loading Pd nanoparticles onto the surface of the ZnO microsphere to form a Pd/ZnO core and then coating the core with a layer of defect-free ZIF-8 shell via ZnO-induced in situ ZIF-8 growth to obtain the Pd/ZnO@ZIF-8 core-shell catalyst. It was crucial that the ZIF-8 was in situ formed from the ZnO core in an ethanol solution only containing 2-methylimidazole under mild conditions. This strategy allowed for the growth of ZIF-8 right on the surface of Pd/ZnO via the reaction between ZnO and the 2-methylimidazole ligands, and thus avoided the random deposition of ZIF-8 crystals on the Pd/ZnO core as in the case of the conventional ZIF-8 synthesis solution. Furthermore, use of ethanol as the solvent also favored achievement of the well-defined Pd/ZnO@ZIF-8 structure, since the ethanol solution of 2-methylimidazole was able to keep the balance between ZnO dissolution and ZIF-8 formation. The as-prepared Pd/ZnO@ZIF-8 core-shell microsphere as an efficient catalyst displayed excellent performance in terms of size-selectivity, stability and anti-poisoning in the liquid hydrogenations of alkenes.

Pd-silicalite-1 composite membrane for direct hydroxylation of benzene.

Pd membranes of excellent stability and flux were prepared with multi-legged anchors by electroless plating of Pd on a porous support modified by a zeolite barrier layer containing Pd seeds; these membranes provide stable phenol production by direct hydroxylation of benzene.