Systematic Experimental Study on Quantum Sieving of Hydrogen Isotopes in Metal-Amide-Imidazolate Frameworks with narrow 1-D Channels

Quantum sieving of hydrogen isotopes is experimentally studied in isostructural hexagonal metal-organic frameworks having 1-D channels, named IFP-1, −3, −4 and −7. Inside the channels, different molecules or atoms restrict the channel diameter periodically with apertures larger (4.2 Å for IFP-1, 3.1 Å for IFP-3) and smaller (2.1 Å for IFP-7, 1.7 Å for IFP-4) than the kinetic diameter of hydrogen isotopes. From a geometrical point of view, no gas should penetrate into IFP-7 and IFP-4, but due to the thermally induced flexibility, so-called gate-opening effect of the apertures, penetration becomes possible with increasing temperature. Thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) measurements with pure H₂ or D₂ have been applied to study isotope adsorption. Further TDS experiments after exposure to an equimolar H₂/D₂ mixture allow to determine directly the selectivity of isotope separation by quantum sieving. IFP-7 shows a very low selectivity not higher than S=2. The selectivity of the materials with the smallest pore aperture IFP-4 has a constant value of S≈2 for different exposure times and pressures, which can be explained by the 1-D channel structure. Due to the relatively small cavities between the apertures of IFP-4 and IFP-7, molecules in the channels cannot pass each other, which leads to a single-file filling. Therefore, no time dependence is observed, since the quantum sieving effect occurs only at the outermost pore aperture, resulting in a low separation selectivity.