Tuning the Adsorption Selectivity of ZIF-8 by Amorphization

Amorphous metal–organic frameworks (a_mMOFs) with a partially collapsed structure are a new category of porous hybrid materials. Here, solid-state amorphization of ZIF-8 was achieved by mechanical compression at 0.75 GPa. The compression-induced amorphous ZIF-8 (a_mZIF-8) had a collapsed structure, but retained partial porosity. Benefiting from the deformed channel, the resultant a_mZIF-8 exhibited preferable adsorption of C₃H₆, resulting in higher thermodynamic adsorption selectivity of C₃H₆/C₃H₈ (6.72) than the crystalline counterparts (1.06). Further, a_mZIF-8 achieved complete separation of an equimolar C₃H₆/C₃H₈ mixture with the first breakthrough of C₃H₈. a_mZIF-8 also displayed an enhancement in CO₂/N₂ and CO₂/CH₄ adsorption selectivities. More importantly, a self-standing a_mZIF-8 membrane with boundary-free microstructure was constructed for the first time, and exhibited separation potential for H₂/CH₄, CO₂/N₂, CO₂/CH₄, and C₃H₆/C₃H₈ with ideal selectivities of 14.79, 12.83, 16.23, and 2.67, respectively.