DefTiMOFs has combined the novel concept of High-Throughput (HT) screening of coordination modulation conditions of Ti-MOFs with a set of novel characterisation techniques using synchrotron radiation and has elucidated the defect chemistry of Ti-MOFs, providing protocols for their synthetic control. Additionally, DefTiMOFs has studied the structure-to-function correlation of defected materials for applications of environmental relevance.
By using an HT approach this project has studied the role of several variables during the synthesis of Ti-MOFs and through the correlation of these variables with the resultant MOFs properties, DefTiMOFs has developed systematic methods to introduce structural defects in a series of highly stable functionalised Ti(IV)-MOFs in a controllable manner. Through thoughtful characterization of the resultant MOFs, the formation of short-range ordered missing clusters in certain MOFs’ structures and under certain conditions has been identified.
The materials’ properties (crystallinity, size, morphology, modulator’s incorporation, defectivity, porosity, stability and bandgap) have been rationalised with the synthetic conditions, providing knowledge to control the features of the materials such as size and defectivity.
Our published results show that the degree of defects (up to 40 molar per cent) can be tuned both by the modulator’s choice and by fine-tuning the synthetic conditions such as linker to metal ratio or the modulator’s concentration or acidity. The defective Ti-MOFs are highly crystalline and their defective nature is embodied in a drastic increase in porosity, with total pore volumes 1.5 times higher than the pristine MOF. Importantly, the porosity features are directly related to the synthetic conditions and the degree of incorporation of defects can be tuned by their modification, which will lead to the ‘a la carte’ syntheses of these defective Ti-MOFs with variable properties.
Understanding the chemical reactivity of these biocompatible Ti-MOFs as a function of the type of defects and their spatial distribution within the framework has been key for their successful application towards heterogeneous catalysis based on the combination of open vacant sites (missing and truncated linkers) working cooperatively with the modulators functionality and photocatalysis by tuning the bandgap through open metal sites and modulator´s incorporation, with a 5-fold increase in comparison to the pristine material. The MOFs’ bandgap decreased with the incorporation of certain functionalised modulators as defect-compensating ligands. The performance of these defective Ti-MOFs as heterogeneous catalysts and as photocatalysts is related to their defective nature among other related properties.
Defective structures functionalised with hydrophobic modulators have been tested for water adsorption in conjunction with the defect-free MOF and analogue non-functionalised defective MOFs. Although water adsorption has been shifted through pore functionalization, the high mesoporosity of the MOFs results in hysteresis desorption behaviour is not ideal for water harvesting devices.
