Bispropylurea bridged polysilsesquioxane: A microporous MOF-like material for molecular recognition

Microporous organosilicas assembled from polysilsesquioxane (POSS) building blocks are promising materials that yet to be explored in-depth. Here, we investigate the processing and molecular structure of bispropylurea bridged POSS (POSS-urea), synthesised through acidic condensation 1,3-bis(3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl)urea (BTPU). Experimentally, show POSS-urea has excellent functionality for recognition toward acetonitrile with an adsorption level 74 mmol/g, which compares favourably MOFs zeolites, applications in volatile organic compounds (VOC). The capacity was 132-fold higher relative toluene, shows pores highly selective towards due their size arrangement. Theoretically, our tight-binding density functional dynamics calculations demonstrated this BTPU based is microporous irregular placement pores. Structural studies confirm maximal pore sizes around 1 nm, cages possessing approximate edge length approximately 3.16 Angstrom