Rare-earth polynuclear metal–organic frameworks
(RE-MOFs)
have demonstrated high durability for caustic acid gas adsorption
and separation based on gas adsorption to the metal clusters. The
metal clusters in the RE-MOFs traditionally contain RE metals bound
by μ
3
–OH groups connected via organic linkers.
Recent studies have suggested that these hydroxyl groups could be
replaced by fluorine atoms during synthesis that includes a fluorine-containing
modulator. Here, a combined modeling and experimental study was undertaken
to elucidate the role of metal cluster fluorination on the thermodynamic
stability, structure, and gas adsorption properties of RE-MOFs. Through
systematic density-functional theory calculations, fluorinated clusters
were found to be thermodynamically more stable than hydroxylated clusters
by up to 8–16 kJ/mol per atom for 100% fluorination. The extent
of fluorination in the metal clusters was validated through a
19
F NMR characterization of 2,5-dihydroxyterepthalic acid (Y-DOBDC)
MOF synthesized with a fluorine-containing modulator.
19
F magic-angle spinning NMR identified two primary peaks in the isotropic
chemical shift (δ
iso
) spectra located at −64.2
and −69.6 ppm, matching calculated
19
F NMR δ
iso
peaks at −63.0 and −70.0 ppm for fluorinated
systems. Calculations also indicate that fluorination of the Y-DOBDC
MOF had negligible effects on the acid gas (SO
2
, NO
2
, H
2
O) binding energies, which decreased by only
∼4 kJ/mol for the 100% fluorinated structure relative to the
hydroxylated structure. Additionally, fluorination did not change
the relative gas binding strengths (SO
2
> H
2
O > NO
2
). Therefore, for the first time the presence
of
fluorine in the metal clusters was found to significantly stabilize
RE-MOFs without changing their acid-gas adsorption properties.