Recent
research endeavors have established metal–organic frameworks
(MOFs) as suitable platforms for the adsorptive removal of various
environmental pollutants. In this regard, the sorptive performances
of four MOFs (MOF-199, UiO-66, UiO-66-NH2, and Co-CUK-1)
were investigated against two gaseous aliphatic ketones (methyl ethyl
ketone (MEK) and methyl isobutyl ketone (MiBK)) at a low partial pressure
(0.1 Pa). Activated carbon was utilized as a reference commercial
sorbent. The 10% breakthrough volume (BTV10) values for MEK decreased
in the following order: MOF-199 (4772 L atm g–1)
> activated carbon (224 L atm g–1) > UiO-66-NH2 (106 L atm g–1) > UiO-66 (53 L atm g–1) > Co-CUK-1 (16 L atm g–1).
In case of MiBK, the relative ordering in BTV10 was consistently maintained
while showing noticeable increases in its magnitude: MOF-199 (7659
L atm g–1) > activated carbon (816 L atm g–1) > UiO-66-NH2 (304 L atm g–1) > UiO-66 (150 L atm g–1) > Co-CUK-1 (31
L atm g–1). The superiority of MOF-199 was confirmed
toward the adsorptive removal of gaseous aliphatic ketones. For a
binary mixture of ketones, the BTV10 values of MOF-199 were reduced
considerably for MEK and MiBK (in comparison to single component sorption)
such as 1579 and 3969 L atm g–1, respectively, reflecting
competitive inhibition of the adsorption process. Theoretical simulations
based on density functional theory (DFT) elucidated the involvement
of highly favorable coordination between the carbonyl group present
in ketone molecules and the uncoordinated Cu(II) sites in the MOF-199
structure (Lewis acidic centers). Interestingly, MOF-199 maintained
appreciable performance toward the mixture of ketones up to 5 cycles
to support its practical merit.