Metal-Organic Materials (MOMs) represent an important class of solid-state crystalline materials. Their countless attractive attributes make them uniquely suited to potentially resolve many present and future utilitarian societal challenges ranging from energy and the environment, all the way to include biology and medicine. Since the birth of coordination chemistry, the self-assembly of organic molecules with metal ions has produced a plethora of simple and complex architectures, many of which possess diverse pore and channel systems in a periodic array. In its infancy however this field was primarily fueled by burgeoning serendipitous discoveries, with no regard to a rational design approach to synthesis. In the late 1980s, the field was transformed when the potential for design was introduced through the seminal studies conducted by Hoskins and Robson who transcended the pivotal works of Wells into the experimental regime. The construction of MOMs using metal-ligand directed assembly is often regarded as the origin of the molecular building block (MBB) approach, a rational design strategy that focuses on the self-assembly of pre-designed MBBs having desired shapes and geometries to generate structures with intended topologies by exploiting the diverse coordination modes and geometries afforded by metal ions and organic molecules. The evolution of the MBB approach has witnessed tremendous breakthroughs in terms of scale and porosity by simply replacing single metal ions with more rigid inorganic metal clusters whilst preserving the inherent modularity and essential geometrical attributes needed to construct target networks for desired applications. The work presented in this dissertation focuses upon the rational design and synthesis of a diverse collection of open frameworks constructed from pre-fabricated rigid inorganic MBBs (i.e. [M(CO2)4], [M2(RCO2)4], [M3O(RCO2)6], MN3O3, etc), supermolecular building blocks (SBBs) and 3-, 4- and 6-connected organic MBBs. A systematic evaluation concerning the effect of various structural parameters (i.e. pore size and shape, metal ion, charge, etc) on hydrogen uptake and the relative binding affinity of H2-MOF interactions for selected systems is provided.

Metal--organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous crystalline materials that are synthesized from rigid organic ligands and metal-containing clusters. They are highly tunable as a number of different structures can be made by simply changing the organic ligand and/or metal ion. MOFs are a promising class of materials for many energy-related applications, including H2 storage and CO2 capture and sequestration. Computational studies can provide insights into MOFs and the mechanism of gas sorption and separation. Theoretical studies on existing MOFs are performed to determine what structural characteristics leads to favorable gas sorption mechanisms. The results from these studies can provide insights into designing new MOFs that are tailored for specific applications. In this work, grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations were performed in various MOFs to understand the gas sorption mechanisms and identify the favorable sorption sites in the respective materials. Experimental observables such as sorption isotherms and associated isosteric heat of adsorption, Qst, values can be generated using this method. Outstanding agreement with experimental measurements engenders confidence in a variety of molecular level predictions. Explicit many-body polarization effects were shown to be important for the modeling of gas sorption in highly charged/polar MOFs that contain open-metal sites. Indeed, this was demonstrated through a series of simulation studies in various MOFs with rht topology that contain such sites. Specifically, the inclusion of many-body polarization interactions was essential to reproduce the experimentally observed sorption isotherms and Qst values and capture the binding of sorbate molecules onto the open-metal sites in these MOFs. This work also presents computational studies on a family of pillared square grid that are water-stable and display high CO2 sorption and selectivity. These MOFs are deemed promising for industrial applications and CO2 separations. Simulations in these materials revealed favorable interactions between the CO2 molecules and the SiF62- pillars. Further, the compound with the smallest pore size exhibits the highest selectivity for CO2 as demonstrated through both experimental and theoretical studies. Many other MOFs with intriguing sorption properties are investigated in this work and their sorption mechanisms have been discerned through molecular simulation.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a relatively new class of porous materials, assembled from inorganic metal nodes and organic ligands. MOFs have garnered significant attention in the porous materials and adsorption fields in recent years due to their various attractive features such as high surface areas and pore volumes, tunable and uniform pore sizes, chemically functionalized adsorption sites, and potential for post-synthetic modification. These features give MOFs enormous potential for use in applications such as air purification, methane and hydrogen storage, separations, catalysis, sensing, and drug delivery. Therefore, synthesis and adsorption studies of MOFs have increased tremendously in recent years. Among the aforesaid applications, air purification and air quality control are important topics because existing porous media are ineffective at the adsorptive removal of toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and chemical warfare agents. Thus, there is a critical need for radical improvements in these purification systems. MOFs have shown great potential to become next-generation filter media as they outperform the traditional porous materials such as activated carbons and zeolites in the air purification of TICs such as ammonia and sulfur dioxide. In spite of the numerous desirable attributes of MOFs, the practical use of these new materials in most applications hinges on their stability in humid or aqueous environments. The sensitivity of certain MOFs under humid conditions is well known, but systematic studies of the water stability properties of MOFs are lacking. This information is critical for identifying structural factors that are important for development of next-generation, water stable MOFs. In addition to the water stability issue, difficulty in the scale up of MOF synthesis has also plagued MOFs. Hence, the goal of this Ph.D. dissertation research is to design ammonia-selective, water stable MOFs that can be synthesized on a large scale. This work will have a direct impact on moving the MOF field forward to the commercial level. To achieve the aforementioned goal, this Ph.D. dissertation research has been divided into following three objectives: (1) Advance our understanding of the water stability of MOFs and develop design criteria for the construction of water stable MOFs. (2) Design water stable, ammonia-selective MOFs for next-generation chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) filter media. (3) Investigate the scale-up of the UiO-66 MOF scaffold. Through the research efforts over the past four years, it is discovered that it is possible to adjust the water stability of pillared MOFs in both positive and negative directions by proper shielding of the ligand via functional groups. This study is the first of its kind and is of high value for the MOF community. This shielding concept is further extended by synthesizing 4 novel isostructural MOFs with methyl functional groups at different positions on the ligand. For the first time, light is shed on the important distinction between kinetic and thermodynamic water stability and experimental evidence for a kinetically governed water stability mechanism in these MOFs is provided. It is also demonstrated that, using catenation in combination with a pillaring strategy, it is possible to obtain water stable MOFs even when the pillar ligand has lower basicity (pKa value). Ammonia breakthrough measurements have shown that a hydroxyl functionalized Zr-based UiO-66 material is promising as it could offer a method for targeting the removal of specific chemical threats in a chemically stable framework that does not degrade in the presence of water. Large scale synthesis of a water stable MOF, UiO-66, is studied using glass vials and Teflon lined autoclaves. UiO-66 synthesis methods have been refined such that it is now possible to produce more than 70 times the yield obtained from the original synthesis report using the same reaction volume. This would result in a significant reduction of the MOF production cost at the industrial scale. Methane and hydrogen are ‘clean fuels’ (less CO2 emissions than petroleum) and MOFs are being tested for their on-board storage in cars due to the extremely high storage capacities of MOFs being promising enough to meet the requirements. Hence, more broadly, this Ph.D. dissertation work will lead to commercial applications of MOFs, which can revolutionize a variety of gas separation and storage problems such as CO2 capture, natural gas upgrading, and methane and hydrogen storage for clean fuel technologies. This would greatly reduce the environmental concerns faced by our society today.

Les Metal-Organic Frameworks résultent de l'organisation de clusters métalliques et demolécules organiques chélatantes qui forment un réseau cristallin poreux. Leur découverte apermis des avancées majeures dans le domaine du stockage et de la séparation des gaz.Malheureusement la faible stabilité et l'acidité modérée de ces matériaux ne les rendent quepeu compétitifs par rapport aux zéolites dans le domaine du raffinage ou de la dépollution. Ils'agit d'explorer, avec ces matériaux, de nouvelles applications catalytiques en tirant partie deleur principale qualité : leur modularité. En effet le large choix de métaux, de ligands, ainsique la post fonctionnalisation de ces derniers permet la synthèse contrôlée de matériauxpossédant des propriétés de flexibilité, de confinement ainsi qu'un environnement chimiquesimilaire à celui des sites actifs des enzymes. Ce travail s'inspire du procédé catalytique desenzymes pour obtenir des MOFs hautement sélectifs en conditions douces. Nous décrivons ledéveloppement de méthodes pour encapsuler des catalyseurs organométalliques dans despores calibrés afin de modifier la sélectivité d'une réaction d'oxydation et stabiliser lecatalyseur. Quatre MOFs supportant des groupes amino ont été synthétisés afin de permettreleur post fonctionnalisation. Les propriétés de flexibilité ainsi que la distribution des sitespotentiellement actifs du MOF MIL-53 ont également été contrôlés grâce à lafonctionnalisation partielle de la structure. Enfin ces amino MOFs furent post fonctionnalisésen isocyanate en deux étapes afin d'améliorer la réactivité de la structure et de permettre legreffage de diverses amines. Ces outils pourraient permettre à court terme la conception deMOFs dont les pores ont un environnement semblable aux metalloenzymes.

Synthesis of polycrystalline, vs. single-crystalline porous materials, such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), is usually beneficial due to shorter synthetic time and higher yields. However, the structural characterization of these materials by X-ray powder diffraction can be complicated. Even more difficult, is to track structural changes of MOFs by in situ experiments. Hence, we designed several successful techniques for the structural investigation of porous MOFs. These methods utilize the Structure Envelope (SE) density maps. SEs are surfaces which describing the pore system with the framework. It was shown that these maps can be easily generated from the structure factors of a few (1 to 10) of the most intense low index reflections. Application of SE in Charge Flipping calculations shortens and simplifies structure determination of MOF materials. This method provides excellent MOF models which can be used as a good starting point for their refinement. However, the most interesting results have been found by using Difference Envelope Density (DED) analysis. DED plots are made by taking the difference between observed and calculated SE densities. This allows us to study guest related issues of MOFs such as, location of guest molecules in the pores, tracking activation of MOFs and gas loading, etc. We also have shown that, DED created from routine powder diffraction patterns might provide very important information about MOF structure itself. In fact DED can be used for study of interpenetration, substituents locations and effects conformational changes in the MOF ligands. Generation and analysis of SEs and DEDs are easy and straightforward. It provides the information needed to explain major deviations in structure-property relationship in MOFs. In our opinion, this method might become one of the important and routine techniques for MOFs structural analysis.

Membrane technology has become a predominant process in providing one of the key components of life (water), either through water and wastewater treatment for water quality purposes or desalination as seen in Ultra-filtration, Nano-filtration, Reverse osmosis, Membrane distillation, Pervaporation, among others. With the ever-increasing demand for portable water due to population increase, constant research has focused on the improvements of the performances of the different water treatment systems including enhancing the performance of the membrane. Among all the different membrane performance enhancement techniques exploited, incorporation of filler has gained much grounds in the last decades. Traditional fillers like silica gel, activated carbon, metal oxides and zeolites are now being challenged by the recent class of mesoporous materials known as Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), which are built of metal ions or metal ion clusters linked together by organic ligands giving these materials tunable pore geometries and pore volume, greatly improved surface area with extraordinary adsorptive properties. The membrane incorporating MOFs demonstrate enhance performances more than the other fillers due to the good coordination of the organic moiety and polymers. The overall objective of this project is to develop and study a membrane incorporated MOFs nanofiber system vis-à-vis their applications in heavy metal contaminated water treatment, stability in aqueous media and the advantages and drawbacks of these composite membranes with regards to the quality of the water produced. The developed materials were characterized by SEM, FTIR, TEM, XPS, DSC, and TGA. The heavy metals earmarked for this study include; Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, and Zinc and were studied using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). Upon successful fabrication of the nanofiber membranes, detailed adsorption studies were conducted (pristine MOF, pristine nanofibers, enmeshed MOFs) to establish adsorption kinetics and isotherm, which were used further to select the best performing membranes for filtration application. Two different MOFs were used, MOF808; made of Zirconium and Benzene Tricarboxylate) and MOF F300; made of Iron and Benzene Tricarboxylate) The adsorption capacities of the MOFs for the different heavy metal analyzed were; MOF 808 (Pb-170.74 mg g-1, Zn-287 mg g-1, Cd-225.05 mg g-1, Hg-276.96 mg g-1) and MOF F300 (Pb-148.13 mg g-1, Hg-229.66 mg g-1), while the membrane adsorption capacities were; PA808 (MOF 808 embedded within polyacrylonitrile (PA) nanofibers, (Pb-23.98 mg g-1, Hg-50.88 mg g-1), PA300, MOF F300 embedded within polyacrylonitrile nanofibers, (Pb-30.19 mg g-1, Hg-53.09 mg g-1). Upon activation of MOF 808 by water (hydractivation), the removal efficiency of MOF 808 was improved by 10% while the MOF membrane efficiency was increased by 30%. Filtration experiments could produce 577.5 L of treated water with a single layer of PAN/ MOF808 membrane at 0.1 bar using a 50 ppb Pb ion feed solution.

This thesis describes the synthesis, characterisation and catalytic testing of multifunctional immobilised metal nanoparticle in metal-organic framework (MOF) materials. Combining the activity of metal nanoparticles with the porosity and Lewis acidity of metal-organic frameworks provides a single catalytic material which can perform multi-step reactions. Strategies to immobilise the metal nanoparticles within the metal-organic frameworks have been investigated. Immobilisation has been achieved by applying three different methodologies. First, deposition of metal nanoparticle precursors within mesoporous MOFs is discussed. Chapter 3 shows the effectivity of the double solvents deposition technique to achieve dispersed and small nanoparticles of around 2.7 nm. The best system combined Pd nanoparticles with MIL-101(Cr). This system was further investigated in tandem reductive amination catalysis, discussed in Chapter 4, to investigate the activity and selectivity provided by these multifunctional catalysts. Another immobilisation technique was performed by coating Pd decorated SiO2 spheres with a MOF layer. Using this technique, MOF was grown cyclically in solution, providing tuneable shell thicknesses of MOF on the metal nanoparticle decorated oxide spheres. While the homogeneity of the MOF shell needs more optimisation, it was determined that the surface charge on the spheres played an important role in the growth of MOF in the desired location. Finally, the third immobilisation technique is the core-shell growth of MOF on colloidal metal nanoparticles. Polymer-capped metal nanoparticles with well-defined shapes were synthesised and characterised. From here, the optimisation of conditions for core-shell growth of UiO-66 and MIL-100(Sc) were investigated. Conditions which provided the desired core-shell morphology were found for both MOF types. These materials were then subsequently used in tandem reductive amination catalysis and a more straightforward styrene hydrogenation. It was shown that the metal nanoparticles remain active catalysts within either MOF shell and the MOF shell stabilises the metal nanoparticle and acts as a Lewis acid catalyst.

In order to find/design porous materials that could be used in practical applications involving adsorption, it is important to investigate the basic properties (i.e. isosteric heat, specific surface area, binding energy, pore size, pore volume, etc.) of each material. With this aim in mind we have looked at three different types of materials: single-walled carbon nanotubes (prepared by the HiPco and laser methods), single-walled nanohorns (dahlia-like and bud-like) and metal-organic frameworks (Cu-BTC and RPM-1). For these substrates we have measured volumetric adsorption isotherms using several gases such as neon, argon, tetrafluoromethane (CF4), xenon, and methane (not all gases for all substrates). Experimental adsorption isotherms were measured using methane, argon, xenon, and neon gases on unpurified single-walled carbon nanotubes prepared by the HiPco method. The main idea behind these experiments was to investigate, using different size gas molecules, the sites available for adsorption on this type of porous material. We found that surface area occupied by these adsorbates on the sample is the same, regardless of their size. This means that all the gases have access to the same group of adsorption sites. Since the biggest adsorbate in this experiment was Xe, and since it is unlikely that it could penetrate the interstitial channels in the nanotube bundles, we conclude that none of the gases, including the smallest one - Ne, are able to adsorb in the interstitial channels in bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes. For the case of argon on laser produced single-walled carbon nanotubes we measured 21 adsorption isotherms using argon gas temperatures between 40 and 153 K that were used to determine the isosteric heat of adsorption for this system. Our experimental results were compared to the ones from computer simulations performed by J. K. Johnson (from the University of Pittsburgh) for the same gas on heterogeneous and homogenous bundles. It was observed that the isosteric heat data matches better with data computed for heterogeneous nanotube bundles. This indicates that at the lowest pressure and coverages argon might be adsorbing in the defect-induced interstitial channels. We studied Cu3(Benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate)2(H2O)3 (abbreviated as Cu-BTC) metal-organic framework with argon to determine the sites available for adsorption on this material. Volumetric adsorption isotherms were measured at temperatures between 66 and 143 K. We found two substeps in the isotherm data, indicating that there are two types of pores present in the material: tetrahedrally-shaped side pockets and the main channels. Our experimental results were compared with data from simulations conducted using the Grand Canonical Monte Carlo method. We determined that the theoretical results match reasonably well with ours if the coverage is scaled down by a factor of 1.6. We explored the potential of two different metal-organic framework materials (Cu-BTC and RPM-1) for gas separation application. We used argon and tetrafluoromethane (CF4) gases to check if this can be achieved through kinetic and steric mechanisms. We found that Cu-BTC has excellent potential in gas separation using a steric mechanism, since argon easily adsorbs into the small pores present in the sample, while CF4 is excluded from them. Adsorption properties of RPM-1 showed that it could be employed in gas separation using a kinetic mechanism - argon gas adsorbs and reaches equilibrium in the pores of the sample more than the order of magnitude faster than CF4. Closed-ended dahlia-like nanohorns were studied with neon and tetrafluoromethane gases. In the first layer of neon and tetrafluoromethane adsorbed on dahlia-like nanohorns we found two substeps. These results were compared with results of computer simulations performed by Prof. M. Calbi. We determined, after comparison with the simulation isotherms, that the lower pressure substeps correspond to adsorption of Ne and CF4 in the narrowest parts of interstitial channels of the aggregates. Surface area calculated from neon isotherms was found to be higher than the one obtained using CF4, meaning that the smaller Ne molecule has the access to the parts of the interstitial channels that are not accessible for the bigger CF4 molecule. Features that appeared in neon adsorption isotherms on bud-like nanohorn aggregates were quite different from the ones on dahlia-like aggregates. We measured neon adsorption isotherms on this type of sample at temperatures between 22 and 49 K. In the monolayer regime we observed one single substep whose origin we can not definitely identify, because the structure of the bud-like nanohorns is not well-known. The binding energy value that was calculated from the isotherm data was lower than the value for neon adsorbed in the grooves of nanotube bundles but higher than for neon on graphite.

abstract: ABSTRACT Large-pore metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes offer potential in a number of gas and liquid separations due to their wide and selective adsorption capacities. A key characteristic of a number of MOF and zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) membranes is their highly selective adsorption capacities for CO2. These membranes offer very tangible potential to separate CO2 in a wide array of industrially relevant separation processes, such as the separation from CO2 in flue gas emissions, as well as the sweetening of methane. By virtue of this, the purpose of this dissertation is to synthesize and characterize two linear large-pore MOF membranes, MOF-5 and ZIF-68, and to study their gas separation properties in binary mixtures of CO¬2/N2 and CO2/CH4. The three main objectives researched are as follows. The first is to study the pervaporation behavior and stability of MOF-5; this is imperative because although MOF-5 exhibits desirable adsorption and separation characteristics, it is very unstable in atmospheric conditions. In determining its stability and behavior in pervaporation, this material can be utilized in conditions wherein atmospheric levels of moisture can be avoided. The second objective is to synthesize, optimize and characterize a linear, more stable MOF membrane, ZIF-68. The final objective is to study in tandem the high-pressure gas separation behavior of MOF-5 and ZIF-68 in binary gas systems of both CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4. Continuous ZIF-68 membranes were synthesized via the reactive seeding method and the modified reactive seeding method. These membranes, as with the MOF-5 membranes synthesized herein, both showed adherence to Knudsen diffusion, indicating limited defects. Organic solvent experiments indicated that MOF-5 and ZIF-68 were stable in a variety of organic solvents, but both showed reductions in permeation flux of the tested molecules. These reductions were attributed to fouling and found to be cumulative up until a saturation of available bonding sites for molecules was reached and stable pervaporation permeances were reached for both. Gas separation behavior for MOF-5 showed direct dependence on the CO2 partial pressure and the overall feed pressure, while ZIF-68 did not show similar behavior. Differences in separation behavior are attributable to orientation of the ZIF-68 membranes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Materials Science and Engineering 2015

Submitted by JADER BARBOSA DA SILVA FLOR null (jader@iq.unesp.br) on 2017-05-22T17:08:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TESE VERSÃO FINAL para a impressão.pdf: 8986552 bytes, checksum: 9b079a86ffb72f7d5def9d9e6c6ba45e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-05-23T17:35:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 flor_jbs_dr_araiq.pdf: 8986552 bytes, checksum: 9b079a86ffb72f7d5def9d9e6c6ba45e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-23T17:35:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 flor_jbs_dr_araiq.pdf: 8986552 bytes, checksum: 9b079a86ffb72f7d5def9d9e6c6ba45e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Neste projeto foram sintetizados e caracterizados materiais porosos conhecidos como Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) que abrangem uma área da química que tem experimentado um crescimento muito grande nas duas últimas décadas. MOFs são compostos cristalinos contendo espaços potencialmente vazios (poros) construídos a partir de íons ou clusters metálicos interconectados por espaçadores orgânicos. Além da diversidade estrutural e topológica, estes materiais têm enorme potencial para muitas aplicações. Dentro desse contexto, o objetivo central do trabalho foi a preparação de MOFs de cobre(II) e zinco(II) e investigação da potencialidade de aplicação em catálise heterogênea. Dentre outros materiais, a MOF MOF-INZ foi preparada pela primeira vez a partir da funcionalização da HKUST-1 via processo PSM (Pos-Synthetic Modification) pela coordenação da isoniazida nos centros coordenativamente insaturados (CUSs) do íon cobre(II) do material precursor ativado. A utilização desse material como catalisador em reações de cicloadição de CO2 frente ao epóxido de propileno resultou em 95% de conversão do reagente em carbonato de propileno (após 72 horas, em presença de TBAI). A última etapa do trabalho consistiu na preparação das MOFs ZIF-8 e HKUST-1 em escala nanométrica, usando moduladores de concentração, e no desenvolvimento de uma técnica muito elegante para a formação de filmes finos sobre nanotubos de dióxido de titânio (com diâmetros da ordem de 50-100 nm). Os materiais híbridos preparados foram então submetidos a reações foto- e fotoeletrocatalíticas de redução de CO2. As MOFs adsorvidas nos eletrodos nanoestruturados mostraram atividades significativamente mais altas em comparação com o eletrodo não modificado. Sob irradiação de luz e na presença de ácido ascórbico, o compósito Ti/TiO2-ZIF-8 gerou cerca de 30 mmol/L de etanol e 2 mmol/L de metanol em fase gasosa, enquanto que reações fotoeletrocatalíticas de redução de CO2 produziram 104 mmol/L e 17 mmol/L desses mesmos produtos, respectivamente. Do que seja do nosso conhecimento, essa é a primeira vez que a redução fotoeletrocatalítica desse importante gás causador do efeito estufa é realizada sobre materiais baseado em MOFs e abre uma frente de pesquisa bastante promissora no que tange a introdução dessa importante classe de materiais porosos no design de fotoeletrocatalisadores para reações gasosas. / In this project, porous materials known as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) were synthesized and characterized, which cover a chemistry area that has experienced a very large growth in the last two decades. MOFs are crystalline compounds containing potentially empty spaces (pores) constructed from ions or metal clusters interconnected by organic spacers. In addition to structural and topological diversity, these materials have enormous potential for many applications. In this context, the main objective of the work was the preparation of copper (II) and zinc (II) MOFs and the investigation of the potentiality of application in heterogeneous catalysis. Among other materials, MOF MOF-INZ was prepared for the first time from the functionalization of HKUST-1 via PSM (Post-Synthetic Modification) process by the coordination of isoniazid to the coordinated unsaturated (CUSs) centers of the copper (II) activated precursor. The use of this material as a catalyst in CO2-cycloaddition reactions to propylene epoxide resulted in 95% conversion of the reactant into propylene carbonate (after 72 hours in the presence of TBAI). The last stage of the work consisted in the preparation of the ZIF-8 and HKUST-1 MOFs at nanoscale using concentration modulators and the development of a very elegant technique for the formation of thin films on titanium dioxide nanotubes (with diameters in the order of 50-100 nm). The prepared hybrid materials were then submitted to photo- and photoelectrocatalytic CO2 reduction reactions. The MOFs adsorbed on the nanostructured electrodes showed significantly higher activities compared to the unmodified electrode. Under light irradiation and in the presence of ascorbic acid, the Ti / TiO2-ZIF-8 composite generated about 30 mmol / L of ethanol and 2 mmol / L of methanol in the gas phase, while photoelectrocatalytic CO2 reduction reactions produced 104 Mmol / L and 17 mmol / L of these same products, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the photoelectrocatalytic reduction of this important greenhouse gas is carried out on materials based on MOFs and opens a very promising research front regarding the introduction of this important class of porous materials in the design of photoelectrocatalysts for gaseous reactions.