A combined inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and theoretical study was carried out on H adsorbed in two covalent organic framework (COF) materials: COF-1 and COF-102. These COFs are synthesized from self-condensation reactions of 1,4-benzenediboronic acid (BDBA) and tetra(4-(dihydroxy)borylphenyl)methane (TBPM) molecules, respectively. Molecular simulations of H adsorption in COF-1 revealed that the H molecules occupy the region between two eclipsed layers of the COF. The most favorable H binding site in COF-1 is located between two BO clusters of the eclipsed layers. Two distinct H binding sites were identified in COF-102 from the simulations: the BO clusters and the phenyl rings of the tetraphenylmethyl units. Two-dimensional quantum rotation calculations for H adsorbed at the considered sites in both COFs resulted in rotational transitions that are in good agreement with those that appear in the corresponding INS spectra. Such calculations were important for interpreting the INS spectra in these materials. Calculation of the rotational potential energy surface for H bound at the most favorable adsorption site in COF-1 and COF-102 revealed unusually high rotational barriers that are attributed to the nature of the BO rings. The values for these barriers to rotation are greater than or comparable to those observed in some metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that possess open-metal sites. This study demonstrates the power of using INS experiments in conjunction with theoretical calculations to gain valuable insights into the nature of the binding sites and, for the first time, the rotational dynamics of H adsorbed in COFs.

The high energy footprint of commodity gas purification and increasing demand for gases require new approaches to gas separation. Kinetic separation of gas mixtures through molecular sieving can enable separation by molecular size or shape exclusion. Physisorbents must exhibit the right pore diameter to enable separation, but the 0.3–0.4 nm range relevant to small gas molecules is hard to control. Herein, dehydration of the ultramicroporous metal–organic framework Ca‐trimesate, Ca(HBTC)⋅H2O (H3BTC=trimesic acid), bnn‐1‐Ca‐H2O, affords a narrow pore variant, Ca(HBTC), bnn‐1‐Ca. Whereas bnn‐1‐Ca‐H2O (pore diameter 0.34 nm) exhibits ultra‐high CO2/N2, CO2/CH4, and C2H2/C2H4 binary selectivity, bnn‐1‐Ca (pore diameter 0.31 nm) offers ideal selectivity for H2/CO2 and H2/N2 under cryogenic conditions. Ca‐trimesate, the first physisorbent to exhibit H2 sieving under cryogenic conditions, could be a prototype for a general approach to exert precise control over pore diameter in physisorbents.

Advancements in parallel computing and hardware have allowed computational exploration of chemical systems of interest with unprecendented accuracy and efficiency. The typical development of molecular simulation software is initially inspired by a particular scientific inquiry. The softwares presented herein, MPMC (Massively Parallel Monte Carlo) and MCMD (Monte Carlo/Molecular Dynamics) were born out of a pursuit to simulate condensed phase physical and chemical interactions in porous materials. MPMC first began in 2005 and has been used for dozens of published results in the literature but has not yet been introduced in a standalone paper. MCMD is a more recent expansion and re‐write with some published work, focused on adding molecular dynamics algorithms for transport and other time‐dependent properties of chemical systems. Each software functions as a standalone with some unique and other overlapping features. A driving aim of this work is to consider periodic, long‐range polarization effects in classical simulation, and both codes are optimized to perform such calculations. Sample results will be presented which highlight methodically that inclusion of explicit polarization produces simulation results with predictive power which in general are in greater agreement with experiment than non‐polarizable analogous simulations.