Date of Award
5-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Department
Natural Sciences
First Advisor
Aguila-Ames, Briana
Area of Concentration
Chemistry with Biology
Abstract
There has been an increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels for energy, vehicle transportation, industrial factories, and deforestation. This is harmful to the environment as it is the primary factor of climate change and ocean acidification. To help solve this issue, scientists have been using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to adsorb and sequester the CO2 due to the highly porous crystalline structures and open metal sites of the MOFs. Hard metal cations act as hard Lewis acids that would coordinate in the open metal site, which attracts the lone pair on the hard Lewis base ligand, forming the MOF. This allows the MOF to have a high CO2 uptake. The effects of varying metal centers on CO2 sequestration were explored, including copper, cobalt, zinc, nickel, magnesium, and iron, through the successful synthesis of four MOFs with a bis(pyrazolate) ligand, 3-nitro-4,4’-bispyrazole, with DMF as a solvent. This ligand is a dual-ligand that was chosen for the MOFs due to its high selectivity for CO2, along with providing a high internal surface area in the MOF to maximize the amount of CO2 adsorbed. Both FTIR and PXRD were used to determine the stability/structure of the MOFs and to provide evidence of CO2 adsorption. The different toxicity levels of the metal centers were taken into account, so a balance could be found to determine which of the MOFs would adsorb and sequester the most CO2 without causing additional harm to the environment. Cobalt, zinc, iron, and nickel MOFs, M-BPZNO2•DMF (M= Co, Zn, Fe, and Ni), were successfully synthesized. Fe-BPZNO2•DMF showed the best result with CO2 adsorption, which was the desired result due to iron's non-toxicity to the environment.
Recommended Citation
Granville, Emily, "SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BIS(PYRAZOLATE) METAL-ORGANIC FRAMEWORKS FOR CARBON DIOXIDE ADSORPTION AND SEQUESTRATION" (2026). Theses & ETDs. 6952.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/6952
Rights
The author has granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.