Porous Molecular Solids with Zero-Dimensional (0D) Pores

非技术摘要：目前用于分离我们现代经济所需的化合物的过程占我们社会能源需求的很大一部分。目前，大量的科学工作正致力于试图通过开发可用于这些分离的新的海绵状材料来尽量减少这些需求，主要是通过选择性地将化合物吸收到可用的毛孔中。这个受资助的项目寻求开发一种相对简单的海绵状固体，这些固体拥有单独的空洞，而不是相互连接的孔洞。这项工作有望促进我们对分子固体中的化学限制和渗透性的理解，并在材料和分离科学以及绿色化学中具有更广泛的意义。该项目将支持我们的下一代材料科学家的教育，并将为华盛顿大都会地区有前途的低收入高中生提供实习机会。技术概述：微孔材料在工业环境中得到了广泛的应用，其中孔在一维、二维或三维上相互连接的开孔结构是该领域许多当代研究的目标。受资助的项目将在一种似乎广泛的误解的背景下，研究和开发本质上为零维(0D)的多孔分子固体，即此类材料的孔作为吸着剂是不活跃的。该项目的目标是：i)进行基础研究，以了解0D多孔分子固体中吸附/解吸动力学(和热力学)的控制因素，寻求了解结构、原子运动和无序、吸附亲和力、吸附性质和缺陷密度对晶体渗透性的影响，ii)开发用于增强0D多孔分子固体中的交换的新材料和方法，寻求扩展0D多孔材料的功能，使得它们可以与传统的开孔材料同等用于化学分离，以及iii)开发某些0D多孔分子固体的限制特性，用于新的科学和应用(例如，稳定反应物种，或储存挥发物)。

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The processes currently employed for the separation of the chemical compounds required by our modern economy are responsible for a significant portion of our society's energy demands. A great deal of scientific effort is currently directed toward trying to minimize these demands by developing new sponge-like materials that can be employed in these separations, broadly via selective absorption of chemical compounds into the available pores. The funded project seeks to develop a novel class of relatively simple sponge-like solids, those that possess individual cavities as opposed to interconnected pores. The work is expected to advance our understanding of chemical confinement and permeability in molecular solids with broader implications in materials and separations science and green chemistry. The project will support the education of our next generation of materials scientists and will provide internship opportunities for promising, low-income high school students in the DC metro area. TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Microporous materials find a host of applications in industrial settings and open-pore structures, wherein pores are interconnected in one, two, or three dimensions, are the targets of much contemporary research in this area. The funded project will study and develop intrinsically zero dimensionally (0D) porous molecular solids in the context of the seemingly broad misconception that the pores of such materials are inactive as sorbents. The project aims to: i) conduct fundamental studies toward the understanding the factors that govern sorption/desorption kinetics (and thermodynamics) in 0D porous molecular solids, seeking to understand the influence of structure, atomic motion and disorder, sorbate affinity, sorbate properties, and defect density, on crystal permeability, ii) develop novel materials and methods for enhanced exchange in 0D porous molecular solids, seeking to expand the functionality of 0D porous materials such that they may be on par with traditional open-pore materials for chemical separations, and iii) exploit the confinement properties of certain 0D porous molecular solids for novel science and applications (e.g., the stabilization of reactive species, or storage of volatiles).