Solventless VOC chemisorption by silver metallocycles

Solventless VOC chemisorption by silver metallocycles Oumarou C. S.a, Tekarli S.,b Nesterov V.,b Omary M. A.,b Burini A.,a Galassi R.,a aSchool of Science and Technology, Chemistry Division, University of Camerino, Via S. Agostino 1, 62032 Camerino; e-mail: camillesimon.oumarou@unicam.it b Department of Chemistry, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA Prior work has focused on detection/sensing aspects of VOCs,[1] this work proposes a method for their simultaneous filtration and removal through their strong chemisorption to a silver(I) metallocyclic trimer.[2] A solid cyclotrimer can quantitatively remove entire molar integers of VOCs (1-3 equivalents of VOCs per mole of the nitrated trimer) from the vapor phase in a solventless “green” chemical process, which is unprecedented for this class of cyclic d10 complexes. Figure 1. Illustration of quadrupole-dipole interactions involving the [Ag(μ-Pz-2CF3)]3 or [Ag(3,5-(NO2)2pz)]3 trimers and acetonitrile using M06/CEP-31G(d). MEP surfaces are plotted in two manners, either mapped on electron density surfaces (rainbow plots with the color scale shown; isodensity = 0.0004) or positive (blue) and negative (red) regions in space (range = ± 2.2 a. u.; isodensity = 0.02) [1] Yaghi et al., PNAS 2008, 105, 11623 [2] R. Galassi, S. Ricci, A. Burini, A. Macchioni, L. Rocchigiani, F. Marmottini, S. Tekarli, V. Nesterov, M. A. Omary, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, submitted.