Surface Pore Engineering of Covalent Organic Frameworks for Ammonia Capture through Synergistic Multivariate and Open Metal Site Approaches

Ammonia (NH3) is a commonly used industrial gas, but its corrosiveness and toxicity are hazardous to human health. Although many adsorbents have been investigated for NH3 sorption, limited ammonia uptake remains an urgent issue yet to be solved. In this article, a series of multivariate covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are explored which are densely functionalized with various active groups, such as —N—H, —C═O, and carboxyl group. Then, a metal ion (Ca2+, Mn2+, and Sr2+) is integrated into the carboxylated structure achieving the first case of an open metal site in COF architecture. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals conclusive evidence for the multiple binding interactions with ammonia in the modified COF materials. Infrared spectroscopy indicates a general trend of binding capability from weak to strong along with —N—H, —C═O, carboxyl group, and metal ion. Through the synergistic multivariate and open metal site, the COF materials show excellent adsorption capacities (14.3 and 19.8 mmol g–1 at 298 and 283 K, respectively) and isosteric heat (Qst) of 91.2 kJ mol–1 for ammonia molecules. This novel approach enables the development of tailor-made porous materials with tunable pore-engineered surface for ammonia uptake.