Size-controlled silver nanoparticles stabilized on thiol-functionalized MIL-53(Al) frameworks

A postsynthetic modification method was used to prepare thiol-functionalized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) by the amidation of mercaptoacetic acid with the amine group, which is present in the frameworks of NH₂-MIL-53(Al). By doing this, the thiol group has been successfully grafted on the MOF, which perfectly combined the highly developed pore structures of the MOF with the strong coordination ability of the thiol group. The resulting thiol-functionalized MIL-53(Al) showed a significantly high adsorption capacity for heavy metal ions like Ag⁺ (182.8 mg g^-1). Even more importantly, these grafted thiol groups can be used as anchoring groups for stabilizing metal nanoparticles (NPs) with controllable sizes. Taking silver as an example, monodispersed Ag NPs encapsulated in the cages of MIL-53(Al) have been prepared by using a two-step procedure. In addition, the particle size of the Ag NPs was adjustable to some extent by controlling the initial loading amount. The average size of the smallest Ag NPs is 3.9 ± 0.9 nm, which is hard to obtain for Ag NPs because of their strong tendency to aggregate.