Nanocrystal/Metal–Organic Framework Hybrids as Electrocatalytic Platforms for CO2 Conversion

The tunable chemistry linked to the organic/inorganic components in colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) and metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) offers a rich playground to advance the fundamental understanding of materials design for various applications. Herein, we combine these two classes of materials by synthesizing NC/MOF hybrids comprising Ag NCs that are in intimate contact with Al‐PMOF ([Al2(OH)2(TCPP)]) (tetrakis(4‐carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP)), to form Ag@Al‐PMOF. In our hybrids, the NCs are embedded in the MOF while still preserving electrical contact with a conductive substrate. This key feature allows the investigation of the Ag@Al‐PMOFs as electrocatalysts for the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). We show that the pristine interface between the NCs and the MOFs accounts for electronic changes in the Ag, which suppress the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and promote the CO2RR. We also demonstrate a minor contribution of mass‐transfer effects imposed by the porous MOF layer under the chosen testing conditions. Furthermore, we find an increased morphological stability of the Ag NCs when combined with the Al‐PMOF. The synthesis method is general and applicable to other metal NCs, thus revealing a new way to think about rationally tailored electrocatalytic materials to steer selectivity and improve stability.

Exploring Synthetic Strategies for Nanocrystal/Reticular Framework Hybrids and Their Potential as CO2 Reduction Electrocatalysts

Yannick Thomas Guntern

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) into valuable chemicals has the potential to realize a carbon-neutral energy cycle. Developing catalysts that can achieve high selectivity towards one of the possible reduction products is one of the biggest challenges in this field. Catalysts possessing one single type of active sites cannot fulfil this need, yet to establish design rules for bifunctional catalysts is not trivial. To have material platforms which allow to study the sensitivity of the catalytic behaviour to structural and compositional features of the catalyst is of the uttermost importance to inform catalyst design. This thesis aims at combining well-defined colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) and porous reticular frameworks as hybrid materials to explore their synergistic interactions as CO2RR catalysts. These classes of materials were chosen because they possess complementary chemical properties which are appealing towards eventually construct an ideal catalyst with high performance. However, one of the challenges is to obtain these hybrids with tunable structural features in an unrestricted compositional range. The overall objective is to design and explore synthetic strategies for the formation of new multifunctional composites consisting of colloidal NCs and metal-organic/covalent organic frameworks (MOFs/COFs). First, a synthetic approach for the formation of NC/MOF hybrid thin films is proposed, which enables their application as a novel catalytic platform for CO2RR. We demonstrate that a combination of colloidal chemistry, atomic-layer deposition and solvothermal synthesis allows to form an intimate contact between Ag NCs and an Al-PMOF matrix. Our tuneable Ag@Al-PMOF hybrid catalysts show promoted CO2RR which is attributed to electronic changes in the Ag NC surface and minor mass-transport effects. Moreover, the hybrids improve the morphological stability of the Ag NCs under CO2RR conditions. We show that the synthetic approach can be further extended to form hybrids with other metallic NCs, thereby representing a new tool for the preparation of composite catalysts for CO2RR. One of the limitations of thin film composites is that synthesis conditions might need to be adapted for different substrates. To prepare hybrid materials in the form of dispensible colloidal solutions is highly appealing and better suited for mechanistic studies. The latter are important because understanding the chemistry driving the formation of such composites is eventually the key for achieving compositional and structural tunability. In the second part, we introduce a new strategy to encapsulate various colloidal NCs in the imine-linked COF LZU1. The synthetic approach allows us to tune the shell thickness and crystallization of the COF in the presence of the NCs. After understanding the nucleation and growth mechanisms of the hybrids, we extend the developed synthesis to obtain multi-layered structures with controlled spatial distribution of various NCs with different compositions. Altogether, we demonstrate that our approach can be applied to prepare hybrids with new functionalities that derive from the encapsulated NCs. Overall, this thesis proposes two different approaches which combine colloidal and reticular chemistry to synthesize tunable material platforms which might aid the design of CO2RR catalysts as well as contributing to other applications which require multifunctional porous materials.

EPFL2021

Ab Initio Derived Force Fields for Predicting CO2 Adsorption and Accessibility of Metal Sites in the Metal-Organic Frameworks M-MOF-74 (M = Mn, Co, Ni, Cu)

Peng Bai, Wendy Lee Queen

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are versatile nanoporous materials that have gained significant interest as low heat capacity, high selectivity sorbents for CO2 capture applications. Large-scale atomistic simulations for identifying high-performance MOFs are possible, but are limited to systems for which existing molecular mechanics force fields describe the interactions between the guest and framework atoms with sufficient accuracy. However, standard force fields are not applicable to cases involving coordinatively unsaturated metal centers that can strongly bind specific sorbate molecules. It has been previously shown that improved force fields can be derived from quantum mechanical calculations. In this work, we derived force fields for an isostructural series of MOFs, M-MOF-74, where M = Mn, Co, Ni, and Cu, from first principles. Monte Carlo calculations in the Gibbs ensemble were used to calculate the CO2 adsorption isotherms in order to assess the quality of the derived force field parameters and to determine a generally applicable procedure for obtaining a reliable force field for a targeted MOF and adsorbate system. The computed CO2 adsorption isotherms for the different M-MOF-74 members agree with experimental measurements at low loading and show that Ni-MOF-74 possesses the highest affinity toward CO2 and Cu-MOF-74 the weakest. In addition, we explored the source of open metal site and pore inaccessibility in these materials and quantified its impact on adsorption, especially the discrepancies often observed between experiments and simulations at high loadings.

Amer Chemical Soc2015

Experimental and theoretical approach to the study of CO2 adsorption in an extensive family of metal-organic frameworks

Miguel Gonzalez, Wendy Lee Queen, Berend Smit

Metal org. frameworks (MOFs) are cryst. materials that contain metal-ions or metal-ion clusters as nodes and org. ligands as linkers to form 1-, 2-, and 3-D structures. In addn. to their convenient modular synthesis and chem. tunability, this class of materials has been under intense investigation for gas storage and sepn. applications due to the discovery of many 3-D frameworks with high internal surface areas. Through careful selection of the ligand and metal, which control pore size / shape and MOF-adsorbate interactions, their uptake properties, such as gas selectivity, can be tuned. Despite these desirable properties there is still a bottleneck in the field assocd. with the deliberate design of materials for targeted applications. Theor. efforts focused on the development of structure and property prediction tools could be a means this end; however, exptl. validation of the tools is necessary for them to be accurately applied to as-yet-synthesized materials in the future. As such, we have carried out a comprehensive exptl. and theor. study of the CO2 adsorption properties in a well-known series of metal-org. frameworks M2(dobdc) M= Mg, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn). In situ structural studies carried out in tandem with gas adsorption measurements have been used to identify the host-guest interactions that lead to significant differences in isosteric heats of CO2 adsorption. Neutron and X-ray powder diffraction and single crystal X-ray diffraction expts. are used to unveil the site-specific binding properties of CO2 within the materials while systematically varying both the amt. of CO2 and the temp. D. functional theory calcns. including van der Waals dispersion quant. corroborate and rationalize observations regarding intramol. CO2 angles and trends in relative geometric properties and heats of adsorption in the M2(dobdc)-CO2 adducts.