Highly efficient mechanochemical synthesis of an indium based metal-organic framework with excellent water stability

Abstract Mechanochemical synthesis, induced by mechanical grinding, is demonstrated to be rapid and efficient for metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) synthesis. For this purpose, a mechanochemical synthesis route was proposed for the first time for preparation of water stable indium metal-organic frameworks InOF-1 . The effects of preparation conditions such as the addition of solvents and grinding time were discussed, and the InOF-1 synthesized through optimized condition was used to investigate its selective CO 2 adsorption. Results showed that using liquid-assisted grinding for 20 min with CH 3 CN (0.4 mL) could lead to highly crystalline and porous InOF-1 with a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 707 m 2 /g. The addition of a small amount of solvent into the system could dramatically improve the crystallinity and porosity of InOF-1 . More importantly, the synthesized product with the highest specific surface area retained its crystallinity and porosity after being soaked in water for 12 h. Its CO 2 adsorption capacity reached as high as 4.03 mmol/g at 273 K and 100 kPa, and CO 2 /CH 4 and CO 2 /N 2 adsorption selectivities were up to 7.5 and 45, respectively. The superior performance of the mechanochemically synthesized InOF-1 makes it a potential candidate for CO 2 adsorption and separation.