Insights into Adsorption of NH3 on HKUST-1 Metal–Organic Framework: A Multitechnique Approach

We report a careful characterization of the interaction of NH3 with the Cu(II) sites of the [Cu2C4O8] paddle-wheel cornerstone of the HKUST-1 metallorganic framework, also known as Cu3(BTC)2. The general picture emerging from combining XRPD, EXAFS, XANES, mid- and far-IR, DRUV–vis, and EPR techniques is that the presence of traces of water has relevant consequences on the effect of ammonia on the MOF framework. NH3 adsorption on the dry system results in a strong chemisorption on Cu(II) sites that distorts the framework, keeping the crystallinity of the material. Perturbation observed upon NH3 adsorption is analogous to that observed for H2O, but noticeably enhanced. When the adsorption of ammonia occurs in humid conditions, a time-dependent, much deeper modification of the system is observed by all of the considered techniques. On a methodological ground, it is worth noticing that we used the optimization of XANES spectra to validate the bond distance obtained by EXAFS.