1. Molecular mechanism of hydrocarbons binding to the metal–organic framework
- Author
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Sun, Xiuquan, Wick, Collin D., Thallapally, Praveen K., McGrail, B. Peter, and Dang, Liem X.
- Subjects
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HYDROCARBONS , *ADSORPTION (Chemistry) , *METHANE , *THERMODYNAMICS , *CYCLOHEXANE , *DIFFUSION , *BIPYRIDINE , *ORGANOMETALLIC compounds - Abstract
Abstract: The adsorption and diffusivity of methane, ethane, n-butane, n-hexane and cyclohexane in a metal organic framework (MOF) with the organic linker tetrakis[4-(carboxyphenyl)oxamethyl]methane, the metal salt, Zn2+, and an organic pillar, 4,4′-bipyridin was studied using molecular dynamics simulations. For the n-alkanes, the longer the chain, the lower the free energy of adsorption, which was attributed to a greater number of contacts between the alkane and MOF. Cyclohexane had a slightly higher adsorption free energy than n-hexane. Furthermore, for cyclo- and n-hexane, there were no significant differences in adsorption free energies between systems with low to moderate loadings. The diffusivity of the n-alkanes was found to strongly depend on chain length with slower diffusion for longer chains. Cyclohexane had no effective diffusion, suggesting the selectivity the MOF towards n-hexane over cyclohexane results from kinetics instead of thermodynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
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