Metal-organic frameworks are promising materials for applications such as gas capture, separation, and storage, due to their ability to selectively adsorb small molecules. The metal-organic framework CuI-MFU-4l, which contains coordinatively unsaturated copper(i) centers, can engage in backbonding interactions with various small molecule guests, motivating the design of frameworks that engage in backbonding and other electronic interactions for highly efficient and selective adsorption. Here, we examine several gases expected to bind to the open copper(i) sites in CuI-MFU-4l via different electronic interactions, including σ-donation, π-backbonding, and formal electron transfer. We show that in situ Cu L-edge near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy can elucidate π-backbonding by directly probing excitations to unoccupied backbonding orbitals with Cu d-character, even for gases that participate in other dominant interactions, such as ligand-to-metal σ-donation. First-principles calculations based on density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory additionally reveal the backbonding molecular orbitals associated with these spectroscopic transitions. The energies of the transitions correlate with the energy levels of the isolated small molecule adsorbates, and the transition intensities are proportional to the binding energies of the guest molecules within CuI-MFU-4l. By elucidating the molecular and electronic structure origins of backbonding interactions between electron rich metal centers in metal-organic frameworks and small molecule guests, it is possible to develop guidelines for further molecular-level design of solid-state adsorbents for energy-efficient separations of relevance to industry.
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