Porous organic cages : synthesis and application in noble gas separation

• Main Author: Reiss, Paul
• Published: University of Liverpool 2015
• Subjects: 540; QD Chemistry
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.677541

Porous organic cages have recently received much attention due to their synthetic tunability, solution processability, high gas adsorption capacities, and ability to selectively separate small molecules based on their size and shape. In this thesis, a range of novel porous organic cages are presented, with each possessing unique functionalities, pore structures and gas sorption properties due to the employment of synthetically-modified versions of traditional trialdehyde and diamine cage precursors. The introduction of new functionality into the cage structure, including methyl, hydroxyl and ethanoanthracene groups, highlights how subtle modification of the cage precursors can initiate significant changes in the self-assembly of the cage molecules. This in turn affects the pore dimensions, as well as the gas sorption and separation performance, of the resultant porous material. This strategy led to the successful isolation of an asymmetric cage molecule, which demonstrated the potential to separate noble gases, as well as the preparation of cages with diverse vertex functionality, molecular size and gas sorption properties. The ability of porous organic cages to selectively separate xenon from krypton gas was also investigated through the use of dynamic breakthrough measurements, with the performance of these cages surpassing all other porous materials evaluated to date.