Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks based porous liquids for promising fluid selective gas sorbents

A kind of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks based porous liquids (e.g., ZIF-8 PLs) with permanent porosity was successfully fabricated by using amine-functionalized ZIF-8 nanoparticles (i.e., ZIF8-A) as the porous fillers and monoglycidyl ether terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (i.e., PDMS) as the hindered solvent, respectively. Those ZIF-8 PLs were homogenous and stable at room temperature because of the liquid-particle interaction derived from the epoxy-amine reaction. In addition, those ZIF-8 PLs have larger gas adsorption abilities than their reference hindered solvent because the well-preserved permanent porosity in ZIF-8 PLs could act as void space for gas accommodation. More importantly, those ZIF-8 PLs also show much higher propane adsorption capacity than both of carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas adsorption capacities under the same condition, suggesting that they could function as a kind of promising candidates for fluid selective gas sorbents.