Deep-Permeation Nanocomposite Structure of ZIF-8 inside Porous Poly(tetrafluoroethylene) by Flow Synergistic Synthesis

Abstract

It is challenging to fabricate stable, complete, controllable, homogeneous metal–organic framework composites. Hereof, we suggested a versatile method where nanocrystals were assembled inside the porous polymer by synergistic chemical synthesis and permeation flow in and through its pores. The poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE)/ZnO and PTFE/ZIF-8 were fabricated as the prototype of the composites. For fabricating the composite, ZnO was first synthesized inside the pores followed by ligand vapor treatment. The even and well-distributed ZnO nanorods of 10–30 nm were synthesized inside pores of PTFE and converted into ZIF-8. The ZnO and ZIF-8 were quantified in 281 and 431 mg g–1 against the original PTFE, respectively. The composite is stable and the nanocrystals are not readily washed away. The adsorption uptake (C3 > C2 > C1) of the light hydrocarbon gases for the PTFE/ZIF-8 nanocomposite were preliminarily evaluated. The adsorption selectivities were calculated, where the selectivities for C2H6/CH4 and C3H8/CH4 were 10.9 and 42.8, respectively.