Inclusion of CO2, NH3, SO2, Cl2 and H2S in porous N4O4-donor macrocyclic Schiff base

The removal and detection of highly toxic and environmentally harmful gases such as SO2, H2S and CO2 is a hot topic of the scientific community. Porous organic compounds, in particular, imine-based macrocycles, are promising materials for this purpose. In this paper we have used porous N4O4-donor macrocyclic Schiff base (1,6,20,25-tetraaza-2,5:8,9:17,18:21,24:27,28:36,37-hexabenzo-10,16,29,35-tetraoxa-cyclooctatriakonta-1,6,20,25-tetraen) (1) for sorption of NH3, SO2, Cl2, CO2 and H2S. Five novel inclusion compounds 1xNH3, 1xSO2, 1xCl2, 1xCO2 and 1xH2S were prepared by a single-crystal to single-crystal (SC-SC) transformation. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) analysis of 1xCO2 and 1xNH3 inclusion compounds have shown that CO2 molecule resides in the plane of the macrocyclic ring connected by weak C–O … π interactions to the host, and no host-guest interactions in 1xNH3 were observed. The relative thermal stabilities of the host-guest systems (Ton – Tb parameter) is in the range from 93 (1xNH3) to 132 °C (1xH2S), indicating the formation of stable inclusion compounds. Although used gases are highly reactive and corrosive, FT-IR and powder diffraction studies indicate that the molecular and crystal structure of the host is constant upon gas sorption. The activated compound displays moderate uptake (0.35 mmol/g) of CO2 at 298 K. The relatively high thermal stability, constant molecular and crystal structure of inclusion compounds with interesting optical properties (determined by solid state UV–Vis) make this material potentially useful for the detection of toxic gases.