Microstructural, Thermal, and Adsorption Properties of Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8 Synthesized by a Facile Method

The present research work aimed at a green and facile synthesis approach for zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) metal-organic framework (MOF). A series of ZIF-8 (ZMOFs) was synthesized by a facile mixing method with varying amounts of methanol as the reaction medium. The volume of methanol was reduced up to 75% with respect to the required volume reported in the literature. All the synthesized ZMOFs showed the crystallographic phase and chemical structure of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) with reasonably high thermal stability. The specific surface area of the synthesized ZMOFs was between 1185-1325 m2g-1 and the pore volume was between 0.51-0.56 cm3g-1. A decrease in the solvent volume resulted in a significant decrease in the product yield but had very little effect on the crystallinity, crystallographic phase and pore characteristics of the synthesized ZMOFs.