Carbon sequestration via the carbon capture and storage (CCS) method is one of the most useful methods of lowering CO₂ emissions in the atmosphere. Ethylenediamine (EDA)- and triethylenetetramine (TETA)-modified mesoporous carbon (MC) has been successfully prepared as a CO₂ storage material. The effect of various concentrations of EDA or TETA added to MC, as well as activated carbon (AC), on their CO₂ adsorption capacity were investigated using high-purity CO₂ as a feed and a titration method to quantitatively measure the amount of adsorbed CO₂. The results showed that within 60 min adsorption time, MCEDA49 gave the highest CO₂ capacity adsorption (19.68 mmol/g), followed by MC-TETA30 (11.241 mol/g). The improvement of CO₂ adsorption capacity at low TETA loadings proved that the four amine functional groups in TETA gave an advantage to CO₂ adsorption. TETA-functionalized MC has the potential to be used as a CO₂ storage material at a low concentration. Therefore, it is relatively benign and friendly to the environment.

The metal–organic framework MIL-101(Cr) is known as a solid–acid catalyst for the solution conversion of biomass-derived glucose to 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF). We study the substitution of Cr³⁺ by Fe³⁺ and Sc³⁺ in the MIL-101 structure in order to prepare more environmentally benign catalysts. MIL-101(Fe) can be prepared, and the inclusion of Sc is possible at low levels (10% of Fe replaced). On extended synthesis times the polymorphic MIL-88B structure instead forms.Increasing the amount of Sc also only yields MIL-88B, even at short crystallisation times. The MIL-88B structure is unstable under hydrothermal conditions, but in dimethylsulfoxide solvent, it provides 5-HMF from glucose as the major product. The optimum material is a bimetallic (Fe,Sc) form of MIL-88B, which provides ~70% conversion of glucose with 35% selectivity towards 5-HMF after 3 hours at 140 °C: this offers high conversion compared to other heterogeneous catalysts reported in the same solvent.

Irradiation of H-ETS-10 in the presence of adsorbed methanol or ethene causes photoreduction of Ti(IV) to Ti(III); photoreduction does not occur for Na, K-ETS-10, but a photoinduced polymerization of ethene is observed.