Synthesis, characterisation and adsorption properties of a porous copper(II) 3D coordination polymer exhibiting strong binding enthalpy and adsorption capacity for carbon dioxide.

The synthesis and characterisation of microporous coordination polymers containing copper(II) or cobalt(II) and 2-(pyridin-4-yl)malonaldehyde (Hpma) is described and the gas adsorption properties evaluated. Single-crystal X-ray structure determinations identified the structures as [M(pma)(2)]·2X (M = Cu, 1; Co, 2; X = MeOH, MeCN), which contain 3D networks with rutile topology and continuous 1D rectangular channels with diameters ranging from 3 to 4 Å. The materials exhibit low BET surface areas of 143 m(2) g(-1), but possess large capacities for carbon dioxide capture of 14.1 wt%. The small pore channels are shown to account for this, delivering a particularly strong binding enthalpy to adsorbed CO(2) of 38 kJ mol(-1), and a very large adsorption capacity relative to the low surface area.