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Removal of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from a CO 2 /N 2 mixture by utilizing CO 2 -selective sorbents is important from the perspective of energy security and environmental sustainability. Herein, a microporous metal-organic framework (MOF) composed of manganese(II) and a bifunctional linker 5-(4 H -1,2,4-triazol-4-yl)benzene-1,3-dicarboxylic acid (H 2 L), [Mn(HL) 2 ] ( 1 ) is designed and synthesized using a hydrothermal method. Characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD), a microporous channel was found in the structure of compound 1 along the a -axis. Attributed to hydrogen-binding interactions between CO 2 molecules and N- and O-donor ligands in its microporous one-dimensional (1D) channel, compound 1 exhibits favorable adsorption of CO 2 over N 2 . Further, verified by experimental breakthrough tests, the CO 2 /N 2 mixture can be separated efficiently. This work provides potential guidance for designing CO 2 -selective MOFs for CO 2 /N 2 separation.

Carbonic anhydrase (CA) mimicking is an effective and environmentally friendly strategy for carbon dioxide sequestration. Herein, we developed a nonanuclear CA-mimetic zinc coordination complex ( 1 ) which possesses a coordination environment similar to that of CA's catalytically active zinc sites. Complex 1 exhibited excellent reusability, solvent and thermal stability, and gram-scale synthesis, which are essential for practical applications. It was found that complex 1 exhibited outstanding catalytic performance that is much better in comparison to that of the popular CA-mimetic compound Zn-cyclen and comparable to that of the reported metal-organic frameworks (e.g., CFA-1 ). Moreover, we found that its catalytic activity can be significantly improved via OAc - /OH - exchange and particle size reduction treatment. This study provides important guidance for the design of highly efficient CA-mimetic materials.

Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a zinc-containing metalloprotein, in which the Zn active center plays the key role to transform CO 2 into carbonate. Inspired by nature, herein we used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to mimic CA for CO 2 conversion, on the basis of the structural similarity between the Zn coordination in MOFs and CA active center. The biomimetic activity of MOFs was investigated by detecting the hydrolysis of para-nitrophenyl acetate, which is a model reaction used to evaluate CA activity. The biomimetic materials (e.g., CFA-1) showed good catalytic activity, and excellent reusability, and solvent and thermal stability, which is very important for practical applications. In addition, ZIF-100 and CFA-1 were used to mimic CA to convert CO 2 gas, and exhibited good efficiency on CO 2 conversion compared with those of other porous materials (e.g., MCM-41, active carbon). This biomimetic study revealed a novel CO 2 treatment method. Instead of simply using MOFs to absorb CO 2 , ZIF-100 and CFA-1 were used to mimic CA for in situ CO 2 conversion, which provides a new prospect in the biological and industrial applications of MOFs.