Functionalization and characterization study of MOFs by plasma process

Metal Organic Framework (MOFs), also known as porous coordination polymers (PCPs), have been intensively studied during the last decade due to their porous structure and high surface area 1-3. Enhancing the porosity and adsorption properties of these materials, especially for hydrogen storage applications is a significant challenge. Low-temperature plasma such as dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) could be used in order to functionalize these materials by grafting some functional groups such as amino groups in the organic ligands of MOFs. Two organic ligands "terephtalic acid and trimesic acid" were treated by DBD plasma in argon gas in order to analyze the physical impact of the plasma on the materials. During the treatment, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) was carried out to identify the chemical species present in the plasma. The global morphology of the organic ligands was determined by SEM. X-Ray diffraction analysis was performed to determine the crystal structures of the organic ligands before and after exposure to the DBD plasma. Subsequently, we investigated the experimental conditions in order to functionalize the materials by executing DBD discharges in Ar/N2/H2 and Ar/NH3 gas mixtures to form the desired amino groups. References: [1] M.