CAREER: Synthesis, Structures, and Properties of Crystalline Boron-Based Porous Materials

技术综述：拟议的研究旨在开发一类晶态的咪唑硼基纳米孔材料，具有模仿多孔沸石的组成和拓扑特征。这些材料是独特的，因为它们能够结合配位聚合物(例如，组成和拓扑多样性)和共价有机骨架材料(例如，轻质)的优点。综合战略包括两个主要步骤。第一个是创建一个能够充当四面体或三角顶点的硼咪唑分子构造块的库。然后，这些预先合成的各种分子构建单元将与金属阳离子或团簇组装成三维无限多孔框架。这一策略特别适合于使用元素周期表中尽可能轻的元素(例如Li和B)来创建超轻多孔材料，并允许开发具有各种组成和拓扑特征的材料。我们将对这些晶体多孔材料进行结构表征，并对它们的各种性能，特别是孔隙率和气体吸附特性进行表征，以确定它们在能源和环境应用中的应用潜力，如氢气储存、二氧化碳封存和选择性气体分离。非技术综述：拟议的研究计划旨在创造一种用于能源和环境应用的海绵状多孔材料家族。这类材料可用作高容量的吸附剂，用于车载燃料储存或废气封存，还可选择性地捕获有毒和放射性金属，用于环境修复。该奖项将帮助PI设计固态和材料化学的课程和一系列研究活动，为本科生和研究生提供培训机会，导致出版和学术报告涉及这些学生。由于PI大学和实验室的大部分学生来自代表性不足的群体，该计划将扩大这些学生的参与，并促进固体和材料研究的多样性。

TECHNICAL SUMMARY:The proposed research aims to develop a family of crystalline boron-imidazolate based nanoporous materials with compositional and topological features that mimic porous zeolites. These materials are unique because they are capable of integrating the advantages of coordination polymers (e.g., compositional and topological diversity) and covalent organic framework materials (e.g., lightweight). The synthetic strategy involves two major steps. The first is to create a library of boron-imidazolate molecular building blocks capable of serving as tetrahedral or trigonal vertices. These various pre-synthesized molecular building units will then be assembled with metal cations or clusters into three-dimensional infinite porous frameworks. This strategy is especially suited for the creation of ultra-light porous materials using the lightest possible elements from the periodic table (e.g., Li and B) and permits the development of materials with a variety of compositional and topological features. These crystalline porous materials will be structurally characterized and their various properties, particularly porosity and gas sorption characteristics, will be characterized to determine their application potentials in energy and environmental applications such as hydrogen storage, carbon dioxide sequestration, and selection gas separation. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:The proposed research program aims to create a family of sponge-like porous materials for energy and environmental applications. Such materials may serve as high capacity adsorbents for on-board fuel storage or waste gas sequestration and they may also selectively trap toxic and radioactive metals for environmental remediation. The award will help the PI to design curricula and a range of research activities in solid state and materials chemistry that will provide training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, leading to publications and scholarly presentations involving these students. Because a large fraction of students in the PI's university and laboratory are from underrepresented groups, the program will broaden the participation of these students and promote diversity in solid state and materials research.