A Microporous Metal–Organic Framework Constructed from a New Tetracarboxylic Acid for Selective Gas Separation

A new organic ligand of pyrene-containing tetracarboxylic acid and its first metal–organic framework UTSA-72 was designed and synthesized. The MOF has the two-dimensional (4,4) framework topology. The activated UTSA-72a exhibits permanent porosity and moderately high selectivities for CO2/N2, C2H2/CH4, and CO2/CH4 gas separations at room temperature because of the small pores within the framework.