UiO-67-type Metal–Organic Frameworks with Enhanced Water Stability and Methane Adsorption Capacity

The structure and properties of two new UiO-67-type metal–organic frameworks, along with their linker synthesis and powder and single crystal synthesis, are presented. The new MOFs, UiO-67-Me and UiO-67-BN, are based on 3,3′-dimethylbiphenyl and 1,1′-binaphthyl linker scaffolds, and show a much higher stability to water than the thoroughly investigated UiO-67, which is based on the biphenyl scaffold. On the basis of structure models obtained from single crystal X-ray diffraction, it is seen that these linkers are partly shielding the Zr cluster. The new materials have higher density than UiO-67, but show a higher volumetric adsorption capacity for methane. UiO-67-BN exhibits excellent reversible water sorption properties, and enhanced stability to aqueous solutions over a wide pH range; it is to the best of our knowledge the most stable Zr-MOF that is isostructural to UiO-67 in aqueous solutions.