3.6 Large-scale synthesis and structural stability of MIL-120Al
For industrial application, the structural stability and scalable
synthesis of the adsorbent also should be considered besides its
adsorption performance. Figure S15 and S19a show the variable
temperature PXRD patterns and corresponding 77 K N2adsorption isotherms, which reveal that MIL-120Al exhibits excellent
thermal stability up to 523 K without any phase changes being observed.
Furthermore, the chemical stability of MIL-120Al toward organic solvents
and acid-base environments was also investigated (Figure S19b and Figure
S19c). The framework of MIL-120Al was stable under extreme conditions
for several hours, and no loss in its crystallinity and no phase changes
were observed in PXRD and the 77 K N2 adsorption
isotherms. In addition, when compared with the pristine material, the
PXRD patterns remain unchanged after the adsorption and breakthrough
tests, indicating its good test stability (Figure S19d). More
importantly, MIL-120Al was easily synthesized from very common chemical
commodities via a ’green’ and scalable method, in which the only solvent
was water (Figures 8a, 8b). In addition, the almost consistent
breakthrough curves observed for the large-scale sample with that of the
laboratory-scale indicate that the scale-up synthesis does not have a
negative effect on the separation properties of the material (Figure
8c).