A microporous metal-organic framework with both open metal and Lewis basic pyridyl sites for high C2H2 and CH4 storage at room temperature.

A new microporous metal-organic framework, Cu2(PDDI) (ZJU-5; H4PDDI = 5,5'-(pyridine-2,5-diyl)diisophthalic acid), was solvothermally synthesized and structurally characterized. With open metal sites, Lewis basic pyridyl sites and suitable pore space, the acetylene uptake in ZJU-5a reaches the highest value of 290 cm(3) g(-1) at 273 K and 1 bar. Furthermore, ZJU-5a exhibits high absolute methane storage of 190 cm(3) (STP) cm(-3) at 35 bar and 224 cm(3) (STP) cm(-3) at 60 bar at room temperature.