Preparation of novel metal-organic frameworks for selective gas adsorption

Abstract

The development of new materials with high adsorption capacity and selectivity is becoming attractive for the applications of clean energy and environment pollution control. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising adsorbents for gas storage and separation, such as H 2 and CH 4 storage, and CO 2 capture, due to their extraordinarily high porosity, adjustable pore sizes, controllable surface functionality and potential scalability for industrial applications.This thesis focuses on developing novel MOFs for selective gas adsorption with large adsorption capacities and high selectivity, as well as good thermal and chemical stability. The studies include optimizing the activation conditions for uniform and empty pores with MOFs Cu-BTC taken as a case study, designing novel MOFs structure with desired functional groups for high selectivity of CO 2 over other gases, fabricating MOFs contained composites with desired electrostatic force with ZIF-8/CNTs as an example, and evaluating the selective gas adsorption performance of all the prepared materials. This thesis aims to establish the relationship between the structure features of MOFs (pore size, metal centres, surface functional groups and electrostatic force) and gas adsorption performance of MOFs (including adsorption capacity and selectivity).