SPring-8, the large synchrotron radiation facility

Release Date

04 Jul, 2006

 The research group of Osaka Prefecture University, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) and Kyoto University has succeeded in the first direct observation of the gas adsorption process in the nanochannel of a metal-organic porous material which provides us with a relevant gas storage mechanism.
 Microporous coordination polymers are crystal materials with perfectly ordered nanochannel structures and have attracted attention for their applications in gas storage, gas separation, and heterogeneous catalysis. In the past several years, the research group has revealed that the gas molecules e.g. oxygen, hydrogen, acetylene, are adsorbed forming ordered array in the nanochannel. These works were reported in the science journals, Nature, Science and Angewandte Chemie and carried in the newspaper series.
 Especially for the explosive and highly reactive gas acetylene, it is important in the basic research and their application to study the mechanism of the stable accommodation through the whole adsorption process. In this study, the ordered array of gas molecules in the metastable intermediate state of adsorption process was revealed. It was also found that the acetylene molecules are accommodated in the pore walls with weak interaction in the intermediate state. The important thing is the flexible framework, which changes its pore channel well suited for the gas molecules dosed at ambient temperature. The structure analysis of an intermediate state revealed the adsorption process of the acetylene. This result provides us with the guiding principles for the design of gas storage materials for safe and stable confinement of highly reactive gases.
 In the present study, the use of high brilliance synchrotron radiation light source at the Powder Diffraction Beamline BL02B2 in SPring-8 led to the success in the elucidation of precise structure in the adsorption process including chemical bonding nature.
 This study was conducted by Dr. Yoshiki Kubota (Osaka Prefecture University), Dr. Masaki Takata (RIKEN SPring-8 Center, JASRI) and Prof. Susumu Kitagawa (Kyoto University) and was published online on June 30 in Angewandte Chemie International Edition in advance of the print version on July 24.

[Article]
"Metastable Sorption State of a Metal-Organic Porous Material Determined by In Situ Synchrotron Powder Diffraction"
Yoshiki Kubota, Masaki Takata, Ryotaro Matsuda, Ryo Kitaura, Susumu Kitagawa, Tatsuo C. Kobayashi
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 45 (2006)