New materials are prerequisite for major breakthrough applications influencing our daily life, and therefore are pivotal for the chemical industry. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) constitute an emerging class of materials useful in gas storage, gas purification and separation applications as well as heterogeneous catalysis. They not only offer higher surface areas and the potential for enhanced activity than currently used materials like base metal oxides, but also provide shape/size selectivity which is important both for separations and catalysis. In this critical review an overview of the potential applications of MOFs in the chemical industry is presented. Furthermore, the synthesis and characterization of the materials are briefly discussed from the industrial perspective (88 references).
Crystalline nanoporous materials serve numerous pivotal functions in industrial chemistry. They provide crucial features for industrial applications, such as high surface area, uniform porosity, inter-connected pore/channel system, accessible pore volume, high adsorption capacity, ion-exchange ability, enhanced catalytic activity, and shape/size selectivity. As a well-established family of nanoporous materials, zeolites are of vital importance for the chemical and petrochemical industries. An emerging class of porous materials called metal organic frameworks (MOFs) also offer promise in various applications. Both zeolites and MOFs can play significant roles in fields that are critical for the future of our industrialized society. In the quest for raw material change, zeolites serve as catalysts providing the required shape/size selectivity towards base chemicals. In global efforts to transition into other transportation fuels such as Hydrogen, MOFs serve as the energy storage media. In the fight against environmental pollution, zeolites not only take part in capture and abatement of harmful substances, but also offer environmentally benign alternatives for many industrial processes. In this review, an industrial perspective on the synthesis and utilization of zeolites and MOFs for current and future applications is presented.
The diameter is decisive: Adsorption sites for hydrogen in the metal–organic frameworks Cu‐BTC, MIL‐53, MOF‐5, and IRMOF‐8 could be identified by using thermal desorption spectroscopy at very low temperatures (see graph). The correlation between the desorption spectra and the pore structure of these MOFs shows that at high hydrogen concentrations the diameter of the cavity determines the heat of adsorption.
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