Nanoporous metal oxides with tunable and nanocrystalline frameworks via conversion of metal-organic frameworks

Nanoporous metal oxide materials are ubiquitous in the material sciences because of their numerous potential applications in various areas, including adsorption, catalysis, energy conversion and storage, optoelectronics, and drug delivery. While synthetic strategies for the preparation of siliceous nanoporous materials are well-established, nonsiliceous metal oxide-based nanoporous materials still present challenges. Herein, we report a novel synthetic strategy that exploits a metal-organic framework (MOF)-driven, self-templated route toward nanoporous metal oxides via thermolysis under inert atmosphere. In this approach, an aliphatic ligand-based MOF is thermally converted to nanoporous metal oxides with highly nanocrystalline frameworks, in which aliphatic ligands act as the self-templates that are afterward evaporated to generate nanopores. We demonstrate this concept with hierarchically nanoporous magnesia (MgO) and ceria (CeO₂), which have potential applicability for adsorption, catalysis, and energy storage. The pore size of these nanoporous metal oxides can be readily tuned by simple control of experimental parameters. Significantly, nanoporous MgO exhibits exceptional CO₂ adsorption capacity (9.2 wt %) under conditions mimicking flue gas. This MOF-driven strategy can be expanded to other nanoporous monometallic and multimetallic oxides with a multitude of potential applications.