Design of Improved Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) H2 Adsorbents

Terumi Furuta,Mitsuya Hosoe,Hiroshi Sakai,Izuru Kanoya

doi:10.3390/polym3042133

Abstract

We attempted synthesis of the hydrogen adsorption material suitable for the fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs). The designed and synthesized Cu2(3,5-Pyridinedicarboxylate)2 (=Cu2PDC2) metal complex showed an extremely high volumetric uptake density for a physisorption material, even though the specific surface area was only about 1,000 m2 g−1. Factors for high uptake properties are considered to be the increased adsorption sites per unit area, the increased adsorption energy, and the optimized design of pore shapes. High hydrogen uptake on volumetric basis is especially effective for FCEV because the tank volume is reduced. It is expected that property prediction using computational simulation and sophisticated analysis at the micro and nano levels will become an indispensable tool in the design of functional materials.

Highlights

Global warming is an urgent issue that mankind must tackle
fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs) can use oxygen from air but hydrogen has to be kept in high pressure hydrogen storage tank
Neutron diffraction measurements were performed to obtain adsorption sites; the result showed that the main sites were around the metallic cores [16]

Summary

Introduction

Global warming is an urgent issue that mankind must tackle. The huge amount of CO2 emitted by human activity is considered to be one of the leading causes of global warming. MOFs have uniform micro-pores and they lead to expectation of high hydrogen adsorption property materials [5,6]. The pore size and crystallographic system may be arbitrarily adjusted by suitably choosing the elements in the metallic cores and the organic ligands for the linkers [4,14]. This flexibility in design makes MOFs attractive. Hydrogen adsorbents for FCEV applications must have high gravimetric (wt %) and volumetric (vol %) storage densities plus a low heat of adsorption (ΔH) to reduce the charging and discharging time. The potential of hydrogen uptake was verified by comparing with IRMOF-1 as a representative of MOF materials

Designed MOF

Characterization

Hydrogen Storage

Cu2PDC2 Synthesis

Conclusions