Growth of HKUST-1 on functionalized graphene layers

Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are porous crystalline materials showing 1, 2 and 3 dimensional extended frameworks that are sustained by coordinative chemical bonds between organic ligands and metal cations/clusters. Among all the characterized MOFs, HKUST-1 or [Cu3(BTC)2(H2O)3]n (H3BTC = benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid) is one of the most studied [1]. Recently it has been noticed that HKUST-1 is also a good system for methane storage [2]. Even MOFs can act as gas storage on their own, they have been also combined with other materials to create composites in order to improve their properties. These composites have been mainly prepared with other materials such as silica, carbon nanotubes, graphite oxide or other carbon types [3]. Graphene is a single layer (2D) of sp2 carbon atoms arranged with a honeycomb structure. Due to its properties (high-resistance, high thermal and electrical conductivity) it has gained a lot of interest in recent years. In particular, the development of composite materials with improved properties as well as the organic functionalization of the graphene layers are of increasing interest. Here we report our results on the growth of HKUST-1 in the presence of benzoic acid functionalized graphene. [4] Authors acknowledge financial support from Regione Lombardia (Project: NASEMS, Concert_EN-046). [1] S. S.-Y. Chui et al. Science, 1999, 283, 1148-1150. [2] J. A. Mason et al. Chem. Sci., 2014, 5, 32-35. [3] Y. Zhao et. al RSC Advances, 2013, 3, 9932-9941. [4] M. Jahan et al. J.Am.Chem.Soc. 2010, 132, 14487–1449.