Single particle mass spectrometry (SPMS) has become an established technique for atmospheric research over the last decade. SPMS has the potential for much broader impacts than simply within the confines of atmospheric research because, theoretically, any sample that can be aerosolized can be measured by SPMS. A relatively unexplored area regards the SPMS analysis of metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs), a new and rapidly evolving area in materials chemistry. MOFs are amenable to SPMS analysis as they are typically light powders, which can easily be dispersed in aerosol form. MOFs provide highly stable and relatively inert materials constructed from organic ligands and metal ions. They have a variety of potential applications, including gas adsorption, catalysis, chemical sensors, and biomedicine. The ability of MOFs to succeed in these applications is dependent on the structure and functionalization of single MOF units. Commonly, chemical and structural information of MOFs are obtained using bulk techniques, such as NMR and powder x-ray diffraction. However, it is unclear using traditional bulk chemical analysis methods if ligand modifications are applied to all MOF units or to only some, resulting in a mixture of functionalized and un-functionalized MOFs in the bulk.Using one type of SPMS, the aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ATOFMS), a variety of MOFs have been chemically characterized at the single particle level. Analysis using selected functional groups has revealed that MOFs are not as chemically robust as initially expected, as these MOFs can readily undergo ligand and cation exchange. These findings enable a hereto unknown synthetic method, termed postsynthetic exchange (PSE). Using PSE, novel materials were synthesized and characterized using ATOFMS. The results that will be described in this presentation suggest the high potential of SPMS for other materials as well, such as covalent organic frameworks or zeolitic imidazolate frameworks.

Characterization of metal organic frameworks on a single particle level: Novel application of single particle mass spectrometry to materials chemistry

247th National Meeting (2014)

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