NaCl as a solid solvent to assist the mechanochemical synthesis and post-synthesis of hierarchical porous MOFs with high I2 vapour uptake.

ABSTRACT

The use of salts as grinding media to assist the mechanosynthesis, and the following one-pot mechanochemical post-synthesis, of hierarchically porous MOFs was carried out efficiently by ball milling. NaCl or KCl were used as a solid solvent to initially pre-grind with 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (H3BTC) and copper acetate monhydrate, respectively, for 1 minute, then both mixtures were combined together for a further 20 minutes of grinding, and the resultant mixture was finally washed with ethanol and water to obtain the hierarchically micro-, meso- and macroporous HKUST-1 with a high yield. Moreover, the post-synthesis of these as-obtained hierarchically porous HKUST-1 was easily performed via grinding triethylenediamine (TED) with the above unwashed crude-products for 20 minutes. By adjusting the amount of NaCl and TED added, we simply fabricated the pore- and function-adjustable hierarchically porous HKUST-1. Furthermore, these as-obtained HKUST-1 products showed high performance in the capture of volatile iodine.