A New Family of Nonsiliceous Porous Hybrids from Bisphosphonates

This paper reviews the development of nonsiliceous porous hybrids, espetially a new family of surfactant assisted mesoporous metal organophosphonates (MOPs) prepared by the reactions between metal sources and bisphosphonates. This synthetic concept was proved by successful construction of aluminium organophosphonate (AOP) frameworks around supramolecular assembly mediated mesopores. In AOP-type materials, a series of ordered mesoporous materials can be obtained after optimizing the synthetic conditions including elimination of oligomeric surfactants and triblock copolymers. Water adsorption properties over the AOP-type materials were exceptional and promising as high-performance devise materials in gas heat-pomp and desiccant systems. A variety of ordered mesoporous titanium organophosphonates (TOPs) have also been prepared with investigation on multi-functions in liquid phases (removal of toxic heavy metal ions, photodegradation of organic pollutants, CO₂ capture, chromatographic separation, etc.). Possibility to combine both functions due to inorganic units and organic groups has so far been explored. Through further development of processing and engineering methodology with the structural (mesoscale), compositional (inorganic and organic parts), and morphological (macroscale) designs, nonsiliceous MOP-type porous materials will widely be developed for potential and practical applications.