Over the past few years, we established a strong collaboration with Dr. Yang Qin (Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, University of New Mexico) to investigate selective adsorption of natural gases on novel metal organic frameworks (MOFs).  Qin’s group synthesize and characterize new charge-separated MOFs. In our lab, we further characterize these materials and perform selective gas adsorption using various adsorption isotherms and spectroscopic methods. One of our most recent MOFs, UNM-1 (C52H16BCuF16N4), possessed a diamondoid structures, assembled from an anionic tetrahedral borate ligand and cationic Cu(I) metal ion. The resulting MOF structure displayed four-fold interpenetration, resulting in high environmental stability, and at the same time possesses relatively large surface area (SABET = 621 m2.g-1) due to the absence of free ions. Gas adsorption measurements revealed temperature-dependent CO2 adsorption/desorption hysteresis, and large CO2/N2 ideal selectivities up to ca. 99 at 313 K and 1 bar, suggesting potential applications of this type of charge-separated MOFs in flue gas treatment and CO2 sequestration. Some of this work is published in Chemical Communications.