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A combination of adsorption, microcalorimetry, infra-red spectroscopy and modeling has been implemented to reveal the potential of the H2S resistant amino-functionalized Ti MOF MIL-125 porous solid for the concomitant elimination of CO2 and H2S from biogas and natural gas.

An adsorbent performance indicator (API) is proposed in an effort to initially highlight porous materials of potential interest for PSA separation processes. This expression takes into account working capacities, selectivities, and adsorption energies and additionally uses weighting factors to reflect the specific requirements of a given process. To demonstrate the applicability of the API, we have performed the adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane at room temperature on a number of metal-organic frameworks, a zeolite and a molecular sieve carbon. The API is calculated for two different CO2/CH4 separation case scenarios: "bulk separation" and "natural gas purification". This comparison highlights how the API can be more versatile than previously proposed comparison factors for an initial indication of potential adsorbent performance.

A high-throughput gas adsorption apparatus is presented for the evaluation of adsorbents of interest in gas storage and separation applications. This instrument is capable of measuring complete adsorption isotherms up to 40 bar on six samples in parallel using as little as 60 mg of material. Multiple adsorption cycles can be carried out and four gases can be used sequentially, giving as many as 24 adsorption isotherms in 24 h. The apparatus has been used to investigate the effect of metal center (MIL-100) and functional groups (CAU-10) on the adsorption of N(2), CO(2), and light hydrocarbons on MOFs. This demonstrates how it can serve to evaluate sample quality and adsorption reversibility, to determine optimum activation conditions and to estimate separation properties. As such it is a useful tool for the screening of novel adsorbents for different applications in gas separation, providing significant time savings in identifying potentially interesting materials.

A series of porous Zr oxoclusters-based MOFs was computationally explored for their gas storage/capture performances. The highly porous UiO-67(Zr) and UiO-68(Zr) solids show exceptionally high CH(4) and CO(2) adsorption capacities under operating conditions that make these thermal, water and mechanical resistant materials very promising for physisorption-based processes.

The adsorption of CO in metal-organic framework CuBTC material is investigated by a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches. The adsorption enthalpy of CO on CuBTC determined experimentally to be -29 kJ mol(-1) at the zero-coverage limit is in very good agreement with the adsorption enthalpy calculated at the combined DFT-ab initio level with the periodic model. Calculations show that polycarbonyl complexes cannot be formed on regular coordinatively unsaturated sites in CuBTC. Experimental IR spectra of the CO probe molecule adsorbed in CuBTC are interpreted based on calculated CO stretching frequencies. Calculations show that long-range interactions are insignificant for the CO/CuBTC system and that this system can be accurately modeled with just a Cu(2)(HCOO)(4) cluster model of the paddle wheel. The reliability of various methods for the description of CO interaction with the Cu(2+) site in CuBTC is discussed based on the experimental results and accurate coupled-cluster calculations. It is shown that standard exchange-correlation functionals do not provide a reliable description of CO interaction with coordinatively unsaturated Cu(2+) sites in CuBTC., (Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

In addition to its high thermal stability, repetitive hydration/dehydration tests have revealed that the porous zirconium terephthalate UiO-66 switches reversibly between its dehydroxylated and hydroxylated versions. The structure of its dehydroxylated form has thus been elucidated by coupling molecular simulations and X-ray powder diffraction data. Infrared measurements have shown that relatively weak acid sites are available while microcalorimetry combined with Monte Carlo simulations emphasize moderate interactions between the UiO-66 surface and a wide range of guest molecules including CH(4), CO, and CO(2). These properties, in conjunction with its significant adsorption capacity, make UiO-66 of interest for its further evaluation for CO(2) recovery in industrial applications. This global approach suggests a strategy for the evaluation of metal-organic frameworks for gas-based applications., (Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

The ligand functionalization effect on the CO(2)/CH(4) separation performance of the MOF type UiO-66(Zr) was explored computationally. The -SO(3)H and -CO(2)H functionalized forms show the highest selectivity, good working capacity and medium ranged CO(2) adsorption enthalpy that make these materials very promising for physisorption-based processes., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011)

The present study illustrates the importance of the oxidation state of iron within the mesoporous iron trimesate [{Fe(3)O(H(2)O)(2)F(0.81)(OH)(0.19)}{C(6)H(3)(CO(2))(3)}(2)] denoted MIL-100(Fe) (MIL= Material from Institut Lavoisier) during adsorption of molecules that can interact with the accessible metal sites through π-back donation. Adsorption of CO has been first followed by FTIR spectroscopy to quantify the Lewis acid sites in the dehydrated Fe(III) sample, outgassed at 150 °C, and on the partially reduced Fe(II/III), outgassed at 250 °C. The exposure of MIL-100(Fe) to CO(2), propane, propene and propyne has then been studied by FTIR spectroscopy and microcalorimetry. It appears that π-back donating molecules are strongly adsorbed on reduced iron(II) sites despite the weaker Lewis acidity of cus Fe(2+) sites compared to that of Fe(3+) ones, as shown by pyridine adsorption., (This journal is © the Owner Societies 2011)