Muhammad Zeeshan, Hasan Can Gulbalkan, Ozce Durak, Zeynep Pinar Haslak, Ugur Unal, Seda Keskin, Alper Uzun, Zeeshan, Muhammad, Gülbalkan, Hasan Can, Durak, Özce, Haşlak, Zeynep Pınar, Ünal, Uğur (ORCID 0000-0003-4718-1243 & YÖK ID 42079), Avcı, Seda Keskin (ORCID 0000-0001-5968-0336 & YÖK ID 40548), Uzun, Alper (ORCID 0000-0001-7024-2900 & YÖK ID 59917), Koç University Tüpraş Energy Center (KUTEM) / Koç Üniversitesi Tüpraş Enerji Merkezi (KÜTEM), Koç University Surface Science and Technology Center (KUYTAM) / Koç Üniversitesi Yüzey Teknolojileri Araştırmaları Merkezi (KUYTAM), College of Engineering, College of Sciences, Graduate School of Sciences and Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Department of Chemistry
Owing to the possibility of generating theoretically unlimited numbers of ionic liquid (IL)-metal-organic framework (MOF) combinations, experimental studies on IL/MOF composites for gas separation applications are mostly conducted on a trial-and-error basis. To address this problem, an integrated computational-experimental hierarchical approach is presented for selecting the best IL-MOF combination for a target gas separation application. For this purpose, UiO-66 and pyrrolidinium-based ILs are chosen as the parent MOF and IL family, respectively, and three powerful computational tools, Conductor-like Screening Model for Realistic Solvents calculations, density functional theory calculations, and grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, are integrated to identify the most promising IL-UiO-66 combination as 1-n-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide/UiO-66, [BMPyrr][DCA]/UiO-66. Then, this composite is synthesized, characterized in deep detail, and tested for CO2/N-2, CO2/CH4, and CH4/N-2 separations. Results demonstrate that [BMPyrr][DCA]/UiO-66 offers an extraordinary gas separation performance, with practically infinite CO2 and CH4 selectivities over N-2 at 15 degrees C and at low pressures. The integrated hierarchical approach proposed in this work paves the way for the rational design and development of novel IL/MOF composites offering exceptional performance for any desired gas separation application., Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK); 1001-Scientific and Technological Research Projects Funding Program; European Research Council (ERC); Europian Union (EU); Horizon 2020; ERC-2017-Starting Grant; Research and Innovation Programme; COSMOS; HEC Pakistan Scholarship