Abstract |
Porous coordination polymers, also known as Metal-Organic Frameworks
(MOFs), represent a new class of porous materials and it is one of the fastest growing
fields in materials chemistry. MOFs are highly crystalline materials that are
constructed by assembly of metal clusters, known as Secondary Building Units
(SBUs), with multidentate organic ligands. Their rapid development lies in their
special structural characteristics, properties and possible applications in important
fields including catalysis, magnetism, luminescence and gas storage/separation.
Designing new materials for specific applications is of great interest. For this
purpose, some strategies have been developed in order to enhance properties that are
important for a specific application (e.g. gas storage). One of the most important
strategies is functionalization of an organic ligand with groups that allow the
immobilization of “hard” metallic centres such as Li+ and Mg2+. Following this
strategy, we whose to introduce sulfonic groups (-SO3H) in commercial available
ligands in order to use sulfonate anions (-SO3-) for immobilizing small alkali metal
ions through electrostatic interactions.
In the present thesis, the synthesis of 4,8-disulfonyl-2,6-
naphthalenedicarboxylic acid is described as well as its use in the construction of new
coordination polymers. This new ligand has two different functional groups, namely
carboxylic (-COOH) and sulfonic (-SO3H) groups. Overall, nine new coordination
polymers with different architectures and one ionic compound have been synthesized.
These materials have been characterised with several techniques including singlecrystal
and powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, infrared
spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), Mössbauer
spectroscopy, magnetic measurements and elemental C, H, N analysis.
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