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Paris, September 29, 2005
A Nanoporous Material with Unparalleled Performance
By combining reasoned chemistry and digital simulation, a team led by Gérard Ferey of the Institut Lavoisier (CNRS/Université de Versailles) has just developed a new nanoporous material––chromium terephthalate, which far outperforms the best materials known to date. With pores 2.9 and 3.4 nanometers in diameter and a specific adsorbing surface area of 6,000 square meters per gram, this solid, featured in today's issue of Science, also turns out to be the best nanomaterial for storing hydrogen at the temperature of liquid nitrogen.
Porous nanomaterials are materials the pores of which are in the order of a nanometer (millionth of millimeter) in size, a scale of the next higher order to that of atoms. One thousand atoms can be contained within a
These materials with adsorbing properties (adhering/binding to the surface) are capable of trapping/capturing a number of substances or molecules. Typically, they can separate or store gases such as hydrogen (useful for fuel cells), methane or carbon dioxide, but they also allow extraction or selective entrapment of solvents. These porous solids are thus becoming strategic materials in terms of energy and sustainable development.
The key is to obtain pores of sufficient width (
A team led by Gérard Ferey of the Institut Lavoisier (CNRS / Université de Versailles) have just described chromium terephthalate or MIL-101 (Matériaux de l'Institut Lavoisier no.101)–– a crystallized solid which far outperforms the best materials known to date. Its mesh has a volume of more than 700,000 angstroms (10-10) and approximates the mesh of proteins. This nanomaterial has two types of pores with accessible diameters of 2.9 and 3.4 nm respectively, and a specific surface area of almost 6,000 square meters per gram, far outstripping the previous record of 4,500 square meters per gram held by a
© Institut Lavoisier (Photo available from the CNRS photo library) Perspective view of the large MIL-101 cage (accessible diameter: 3.4 nm). Chromium atoms are shown in green, oxygen and carbon atoms are shown in yellow and white, respectively. Water molecules are shown in pale blue.
In addition to its nanoreservoir capabilities, the researchers have demonstrated that it may be potentially developed into a nanoreactor. At this scale, they synthesized zinc sulphide (i.e. a semiconductor) in situ. This work provides high growth potential opportunities for nanomaterials. The pores could be used as molds and would make it possible to study the nanophysical properties of that type of solid.
Above and beyond the performance per se, the method implemented to access the structure–combining reasoned chemistry and digital simulation–breaks new ground as it can be predicted once the chemical conditions corresponding to the existence of the inorganic part are understood.
References:
A chromium terephtalate-based solid with unusually large pore volumes and surface area, G.Ferey, C. Mellot Draznieks, C. Serre, F. Millange, J. Dutour, S. Surblé, I. Margiolaki, Science, September 23rd, vol. 309, no. 5743
Contact information:
Researcher contact information:
Gérard Ferey, Institut Lavoisier (CNRS / Université de Versailles) Tel.: 00 49 711 689 1787, g.ferey@fkf.mpg.de
Press contact information:
Gaëlle Multier, Tel.: 00 33 1 44 96 46 06, E-mail: gaelle.multier@cnrs-dir.fr
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