Fundamental Perspectives on the Electrochemical Water Applications of Metal-Organic Frameworks

HIGHLIGHTS

The recent development and implementation of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and MOF-based materials in electrochemical water applications are reviewed. The critical factors that affect the performances of MOFs in the electrochemical reactions, sensing, and separations are highlighted. Advanced tools, such as pair distribution function analysis, are playing critical roles in unraveling the functioning mechanisms, including local structures and nanoconfined interactions. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a family of highly porous materials possessing huge surface areas and feasible chemical tunability, are emerging as critical functional materials to solve the growing challenges associated with energy-water systems, such as water scarcity issues. In this contribution, the roles of MOFs are highlighted in electrochemical-based water applications (i.e., reactions, sensing, and separations), where MOF-based functional materials exhibit outstanding performances in detecting/removing pollutants, recovering resources, and harvesting energies from different water sources. Compared with the pristine MOFs, the efficiency and/or selectivity can be further enhanced via rational structural modulation of MOFs (e.g., partial metal substitution) or integration of MOFs with other functional materials (e.g., metal clusters and reduced graphene oxide). Several key factors/properties that affect the performances of MOF-based materials are also reviewed, including electronic structures, nanoconfined effects, stability, conductivity, and atomic structures. The advancement in the fundamental understanding of these key factors is expected to shed light on the functioning mechanisms of MOFs (e.g., charge transfer pathways and guest-host interactions), which will subsequently accelerate the integration of precisely designed MOFs into electrochemical architectures to achieve highly effective water remediation with optimized selectivity and long-term stability.

A High Energy X-ray Diffraction Study of Amorphous Indomethacin

Amorphous pharmaceuticals often possess a wide range of molecular conformations and bonding arrangements. The x-ray pair distribution function (PDF) method is a powerful technique for the characterization of variations in both intra-molecular and inter-molecular packing arrangements. Here, the x-ray PDF of amorphous Indomethacin is shown to be particularly sensitive to the preferred orientations of the chlorobenzyl ring found in isomers in the crystalline state. In some cases, the chlorobenzyl ring has no preferred torsional angle in the amorphous form, while in others evidence of distinct isomer orientations are observed. Amorphous samples with no preferred torsion angles of the chlorobenzyl ring are found to favor enhanced inter-molecular hydrogen bonding, and this is reflected in the intensity of the first sharp diffraction peak. These significant variations in structure rule out amorphous Indomethacin as a possible standard for x-ray PDF measurements. At high humidity, time resolved PDF's for >40 h reveal water molecules forming hydrogen bonds with Indomethacin molecules. A simple linear hydrogen bond model indicates that water molecules in the wet amorphous form have similar hydrogen bond strengths to those found between Indomethacin dimers or chains in the dry amorphous form.

Single-molecule localisation microscopy: accounting for chance co-localisation between foci in bacterial cells

Using single-molecule fluorescence microscopes, individual biomolecules can be observed within live bacterial cells. Using differently coloured probes, physical associations between two different molecular species can be assessed through co-localisation measurements. However, bacterial cells are finite and small (~ 1 μm) relative to the resolution limit of optical microscopes (~ 0.25 μm). Furthermore, the images produced by optical microscopes are typically two-dimensional projections of three-dimensional objects. These limitations mean that a certain proportion of object pairs (molecules) will inevitably be assigned as being co-localised, even when they are distant at molecular distance scales (nm). What is this proportion? Here, we attack this problem, theoretically and computationally, by creating a model of the co-localisation expected purely due to chance. We thus consider a bacterial cell wherein objects are distributed at random and evaluate the co-localisation in a fashion that emulates an experimental analysis. We consider simplified geometries where we can most transparently investigate the effect of a finite size of the cell and the effect of probing a three-dimensional cell in only two dimensions. Coupling theory to simulations, we also study the co-localisation expected due to chance using parameters relevant to bacterial cells. Overall, we show that the co-localisation expected purely due to chance can be quite substantial and describe the parameters that it depends upon.

Amorphous dispersions of flubendazole in hydroxypropyl methylcellulose: Formulation stability assisted by pair distribution function analysis

We use X-ray pair distribution function (PDF) analysis applied to high-energy synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data to evaluate the amorphous solid dispersions interactions and their aging stability. The obtained systems are based on hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (hypromellose) derivatives and flubendazole (FBZ) drug dispersions prepared using a spray-dryer technique. We carry out stability studies under aging parameters (40 °C/75% relative humidity) to tune the systems' recrystallization. The results reveal that ion-base interactions between the drug-polymer matrix are responsible for reducing clustering processes yielding slower recrystallization and different ordering in the hypromellose phthalate (HPMCP/FBZ) and hypromellose acetate succinate (HPMC-AS/FBZ) systems and complete drug clustering in hypromellose (HPMC-E3/FBZ). The structural ordering was accessed using differential X-ray PDFs that revealed the region between 3.5 Å and 5.0 Å could be related to FBZ intermolecular interactions and is more ordered for the least stable system (HPMC-E3/FBZ) and less ordered for the most stable system (HPMCP/FBZ). These results show that the ion-base interactions between drug and matrix occur at these intermolecular distances.

Imprinting isolated single iron atoms onto mesoporous silica by templating with metallosurfactants

HYPOTHESIS

One of the main drawbacks of metal-supported materials, traditionally prepared by the impregnation of metal salts onto pre-synthesized porous supports, is the formation of large and unevenly dispersed particles. Generally, the larger are the particles, the lower is the number of catalytic sites. Maximum atom exposure can be reached within single-atom materials, which appear therefore as the next generation of porous catalysts.

EXPERIMENTS

Herein, we designed single iron atom-supported silica materials through sol-gel hydrothermal treatment using mixtures of a non-ionic surfactant (Pluronic P123) and a metallosurfactant (cetyltrimethylammoniumtrichloromonobromoferrate, CTAF) as porogens. The ratio between the Pluronic P123 and the CTAF enables to control the silica structural and textural properties. More importantly, CTAF acts as an iron source, which amount could be simply tuned by varying the non-ionic/metallo surfactants molar ratio.

FINDINGS

The fine distribution of iron atoms onto the silica mesopores results from the iron distribution within the mixed micelles, which serve as templates for the polymerization of the silica matrix. Several characterization methods were used to determine the structural and textural properties of the silica material (XRD, N₂ sorption isotherms and TEM) and the homogeneous distribution and lack of clustering of iron atoms in the resulting materials (elemental analysis, magnetic measurements, pair distribution function (PDF), MAS-NMR and TEM mapping). The oxidation and spin state of single-iron atoms determined from their magnetic properties were confirmed by DFT calculations. This strategy might find straightforward applications in preparing versatile single atom catalysts, with improved efficiency compared to nanosized ones.

Atomic pair distribution function research on Li2MnO3 electrode structure evolution

The mechanism research of structure-related reactions on Li₂MnO₃ is important to enhance the electrochemical performance of lithium-manganese-rich layered oxides. Although there are some reports on the structure evolution of Li₂MnO₃ during cycling process, the employed research techniques are very limited, mainly in/ex-situ X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption and transmission electron microscopy. Here, atomic pair distribution function, a method to study the local atomic arrangement on the basis of average spectroscopic information, is used for the first time to study the local structure evolution of Li₂MnO₃ during electrochemical charge/discharge cycles. The results clearly demonstrate that Mn³⁺/Mn⁴⁺ redox couple is activated and Mn ions are reduced during discharging process. Some Mn ions in Mn layers can significantly migrate to Li layers and occupy the octahedral sites. As a result, a portion of inserted Li ions can occupy the face-shared tetrahedronsites, accompanied by the formation of local spinel-like structure. This work provides an important and suitable method based on the average spectroscopic information to investigate the local structure of electrode materials of lithium-ion batteries as well as other advanced battery systems.

Application of total X-ray scattering methods and pair distribution function analysis for study of structure of biominerals

Total X-ray scattering and pair distribution function (PDF) analysis, using a high-energy synchrotron source, allow direct study of the short- and intermediate-range structure that distinguish amorphous, structurally disordered, and nanocrystalline biominerals. For such samples in which diffuse scatter is a significant component, care must be taken in the experimental procedures to optimize data quality and extract the useful signal necessary to calculate the PDF. General methods are described for data collection and processing, including commonly used software programs. Methods for analysis and interpretation of PDFs are presented, including direct real-space refinement and reverse Monte Carlo methods. Greater application of PDFs to amorphous and poorly crystallized biominerals will provide new insight into structure, especially over length scales that are not probed by other techniques. The rapid data collection available at synchrotron facilities also allows in situ kinetic studies of reactions involving biominerals.