Fluorocarbon adsorption in hierarchical porous frameworks

Nat Commun. 2014 Jul 9:5:4368. doi: 10.1038/ncomms5368.

Abstract

Metal-organic frameworks comprise an important class of solid-state materials and have potential for many emerging applications such as energy storage, separation, catalysis and bio-medical. Here we report the adsorption behaviour of a series of fluorocarbon derivatives on a set of microporous and hierarchical mesoporous frameworks. The microporous frameworks show a saturation uptake capacity for dichlorodifluoromethane of >4 mmol g(-1) at a very low relative saturation pressure (P/Po) of 0.02. In contrast, the mesoporous framework shows an exceptionally high uptake capacity reaching >14 mmol g(-1) at P/Po of 0.4. Adsorption affinity in terms of mass loading and isosteric heats of adsorption is found to generally correlate with the polarizability and boiling point of the refrigerant, with dichlorodifluoromethane > chlorodifluoromethane > chlorotrifluoromethane > tetrafluoromethane > methane. These results suggest the possibility of exploiting these sorbents for separation of azeotropic mixtures of fluorocarbons and use in eco-friendly fluorocarbon-based adsorption cooling.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.