Microporous materials formed via intercalation of ultrathin coordination polymers in a layered silicate

Highlights: • A new porous material having energy applications that cannot be delivered by zeolites and MOFs. • Aligning/packing 1D coordination polymers within layered silicates creates micropores. • Synergistically enhanced adsorption by micropores surrounded by polymers and silicate walls. -- Abstract: Development of microporous materials, like zeolites and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), with unique and better properties, is crucially important, while yet challenging, for many energy applications. Herein, we report on a new family of microporous hybrids having well-defined permanent porosity, which is formed by pillaring a layered silicate with packed coordination polymers. This inorganic-organic hybrid material, having well-defined/two-faced micropores surrounded by the polymers and silicate walls, exhibits superior adsorption toward methanol due to co-operative interactions compared with conventional microporous materials. The material could be used as an adsorbent to selectively and effectively recover methanol from a methanol/water vapour mixture.