Adsorption of CO2, CH4, and N2 on 8-, 10-, and 12-Membered Ring Hydrophobic Microporous High-Silica Zeolites: DDR, Silicalite-1, and Beta

Tracking carbon dioxide adsorbate intramolecular dynamics in pure silica zeolite Silicalite-1 by in situ Raman scattering

We report a series of high-quality Raman spectra of carbon dioxide (CO2) adsorbed at room temperature and at various equilibrium pressures, sampling the corresponding adsorption isotherm up to 12 bar. The observed splitting in Fermi diad resonance lines, which were additionally split into two well-resolved components, arising from at least two different CO2 species, were compared to the same quantity in high-pressure gas/solid/liquid CO2 phases. Our studies provide material specific spectral data that could be useful in the detection, identification, and dynamical characterization of CO2 deposits, inclusions, or other forms in remote locations and of various origins, e.g. geological, planetary, stellar, and deap-sea sediments.

N-rich chitosan-derived porous carbon materials for efficient CO2 adsorption and gas separation

Capturing and separating carbon dioxide, particularly using porous carbon adsorption separation technology, has received considerable research attention due to its advantages such as low cost and ease of regeneration. In this study, we successfully developed a one-step carbonization activation method using freeze-thaw pre-mix treatment to prepare high-nitrogen-content microporous nitrogen-doped carbon materials. These materials hold promise for capturing and separating CO2 from complex gas mixtures, such as biogas. The nitrogen content of the prepared carbon adsorbents reaches as high as 13.08 wt%, and they exhibit excellent CO2 adsorption performance under standard conditions (1 bar, 273 K/298 K), achieving 6.97 mmol/g and 3.77 mmol/g, respectively. Furthermore, according to Ideal Adsorption Solution Theory (IAST) analysis, these materials demonstrate material selectivity for CO2/CH4 (10 v:90 v) and CO2/CH4 (50 v:50 v) of 33.3 and 21.8, respectively, at 1 bar and 298 K. This study provides a promising CO2 adsorption and separation adsorbent that can be used in the efficient purification process for carbon dioxide, potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in industrial and energy production, thus offering robust support for addressing climate change and achieving more environmentally friendly energy production and carbon capture goals.

Carbon Capture Using Porous Silica Materials

As the primary greenhouse gas, CO₂ emission has noticeably increased over the past decades resulting in global warming and climate change. Surprisingly, anthropogenic activities have increased atmospheric CO₂ by 50% in less than 200 years, causing more frequent and severe rainfall, snowstorms, flash floods, droughts, heat waves, and rising sea levels in recent times. Hence, reducing the excess CO₂ in the atmosphere is imperative to keep the global average temperature rise below 2 °C. Among many CO₂ mitigation approaches, CO₂ capture using porous materials is considered one of the most promising technologies. Porous solid materials such as carbons, silica, zeolites, hollow fibers, and alumina have been widely investigated in CO₂ capture technologies. Interestingly, porous silica-based materials have recently emerged as excellent candidates for CO₂ capture technologies due to their unique properties, including high surface area, pore volume, easy surface functionalization, excellent thermal, and mechanical stability, and low cost. Therefore, this review comprehensively covers major CO₂ capture processes and their pros and cons, selecting a suitable sorbent, use of liquid amines, and highlights the recent progress of various porous silica materials, including amine-functionalized silica, their reaction mechanisms and synthesis processes. Moreover, CO₂ adsorption capacities, gas selectivity, reusability, current challenges, and future directions of porous silica materials have also been discussed.

Carbon Capture Materials in Post-Combustion: Adsorption and Absorption-Based Processes

Global warming and climate changes are among the biggest modern-day environmental problems, the main factor causing these problems is the greenhouse gas effect. The increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere resulted in capturing increased amounts of reflected sunlight, causing serious acute and chronic environmental problems. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 421 ppm in 2022 as compared to 280 in the 1800s, this increase is attributed to the increased carbon dioxide emissions from the industrial revolution. The release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere can be minimized by practicing carbon capture utilization and storage methods. Carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) has four major methods, namely, pre-combustion, post-combustion, oxyfuel combustion, and direct air capture. It has been reported that applying CCUS can capture up to 95% of the produced carbon dioxide in running power plants. However, a reported cost penalty and efficiency decrease hinder the wide applicability of CCUS. Advancements in the CCSU were made in increasing the efficiency and decreasing the cost of the sorbents. In this review, we highlight the recent developments in utilizing both physical and chemical sorbents to capture carbon. This includes amine-based sorbents, blended absorbents, ionic liquids, metal-organic framework (MOF) adsorbents, zeolites, mesoporous silica materials, alkali-metal adsorbents, carbonaceous materials, and metal oxide/metal oxide-based materials. In addition, a comparison between recently proposed kinetic and thermodynamic models was also introduced. It was concluded from the published studies that amine-based sorbents are considered assuperior carbon-capturing materials, which is attributed to their high stability, multifunctionality, rapid capture, and ability to achieve large sorption capacities. However, more work must be done to reduce their cost as it can be regarded as their main drawback.

Machine learning analysis and prediction of N2, N2O, and O2 adsorption on activated carbon and carbon molecular sieve

This research focuses on predicting the adsorbed amount of N₂, O₂, and N₂O on carbon molecular sieve and activated carbon using the artificial neural network (ANN) approach. Experimental isotherm data (data set 1242) on adsorbent type, gas type, temperature, and pressure of the process adsorption were used as input datasets for network investigation utilizing the Sips and dual-site Langmuir isotherm models. The network's output has been used to assess the quantity of gas adsorbed. The Gaussian algorithm was applied as a single 98-neuron hidden layer from a radial based functions (RBF) approach, and the Bayesian regularization (BR) algorithm was used as a two-layer network deep learning from a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) approach utilizing 20 neurons. The MLP and RBF networks would have the best mean square error (MSE) after 98 and 100 epochs, respectively, validating efficiencies of 0.00008 and 0.00033, while the square of the coefficient of correlations (R²) was 0.9996 and 0.9993, respectively. The ANN weight matrix generated can accurately predict the adsorption process behavior of different carbon-based adsorbents under various process conditions for air separation and N₂O adsorption. The results of this study have the potential to assist a wide range of process industries.

Novel prosperous computational estimations for greenhouse gas adsorptive control by zeolites using machine learning methods

To predict CO₂ adsorptive capture, as a vital environmental issue, using different zeolites including 5A, 13X, T-Type, SSZ-13, and SAPO-34, different models have been developed by implementing artificial intelligence algorithms. Hybrid adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (Hybrid-ANFIS), particle swarm optimization-adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (PSO-ANFIS) and the least-squares support vector machine (LSSVM) modeling optimized with the coupled simulated annealing (CSA) optimization have been employed for the models. The developed models, validated by utilizing various graphical and statistical methods exhibited that the Hybrid-ANFIS model estimations for the gas adsorption on 5A, T-Type, SSZ-13, and SAPO-34 zeolites with average absolute relative deviation (AARD) % of 8.21, 1.92, 4.99 and 2.26, and PSO ANFIS model estimations for the gas adsorption on zeolite 13X with an AARD of 4.85% were in good agreement with corresponding experimental data. It could be deduced that the proposed models were more prosperous and efficient in favor of the design and analysis of adsorption processes than previous ones.

Achieving High-Selective CO2 Adsorption on SAPO-35 Zeolites by Template-Modulating Framework Silicon Content

Small-pore silicoaluminophosphate (SAPO) zeolites with 8-ring pore windows and appropriate acidities/polarities, for example, SAPO-34 (CHA) and SAPO-56 (AFX) have proven as potential adsorbing materials for selective adsorption of CO2. However,...

Synthesis of palm sheath derived-porous carbon for selective CO2 adsorption

Biomass-derived porous carbons are regarded as the most preferential adsorbents for CO₂ capture due to their well-developed textural properties, tunable porosity and low cost. Herein, novel porous carbons were facilely prepared by activation of palm sheath for the highly selective separation of CO₂ from gas mixtures. The textural features of carbon materials were characterized by the analysis of surface morphology and N₂ isotherms for textural characterization. The as-prepared carbon adsorbents possess an excellent CO₂ adsorption capacity of 3.48 mmol g⁻¹ (298 K) and 5.28 mmol g⁻¹ (273 K) at 1 bar, and outstanding IAST selectivities of CO₂/N₂, CO₂/CH₄, and CH₄/N₂ up to 32.7, 7.1 and 4.6 at 298 K and 1 bar, respectively. Also, the adsorption evaluation criteria of the vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) process, the breakthrough experiments, and the cyclic experiments have comprehensively demonstrated the palm sheath derived porous carbons as efficient adsorbents for practical applications.

Novel porous carbons were facilely prepared by activation of palm sheath for the highly selective separation of CO₂ from gas mixtures.

Separation and Purification of Hydrocarbons with Porous Materials

This Minireview focuses on the developments of the adsorptive separation of methane/nitrogen, ethene/ethane, propene/propane mixtures as well as on the separation of C8 aromatics (i.e. xylene isomers) with a wide variety of materials, including carbonaceous materials, zeolites, metal-organic frameworks, and porous organic frameworks. Some recent important developments for these adsorptive separations are also highlighted. The advantages and disadvantages of each material category are discussed and guidelines for the design of improved materials are proposed. Furthermore, challenges and future developments of each material type and separation processes are discussed.

Nanosponges based on self-assembled starfish-shaped cucurbit[6]urils functionalized with imidazolium arms

A new porous material based on the first supramolecular cucurbituril-based nanosponge was synthesized by the functionalization of cucurbit[6]uril with twelve 1-(2-bromoethyl)-3-methyl-1H-imidazol-3-ium arms. The porous structure and the high adsorption capacity were demonstrated through surface area measurements and carbon dioxide adsorption. The new supramolecular sponge showed attractive properties such as (i) a highly porous structure that allowed CO₂ capture, (ii) the possibility to reuse the adsorbed CO₂ for organic synthesis, and (iii) an exciting thermal stability up to around 800 °C, with the potential use of this material in high temperature reactions. Finally, the reuse of CO₂ was successfully investigated in the carboxylation reaction of phenylacetylene.

Self-Interpenetrated Water-Stable Microporous Metal-Organic Framework toward Storage and Purification of Light Hydrocarbons

Storage and purification of light hydrocarbons are very meaningful for their high-purity requirements and safety utilization in the fields of industry and clean energy. It is a simple and effective way to achieve this goal utilizing the physical adsorption properties of stable porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). In this work, a stable self-interpenetrated three-dimensional MOF with a new 3,4-connected topology, {[Zn₂(tpda)₂(4,4'-bpy)]·4DMF}_n (NKM-101; H₂tpda = 4,4'-[4-(4H-1,2,4-triazol-4-yl)phenyl]dibenzoic acid, 4,4'-bpy = 4,4'-bipyridine, and DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide), has been successfully constructed based on a triazole-carboxyl ligand. The dense functional active sites existing on the inner walls of one-dimensional channels of NKM-101 are beneficial to enhancement of the binding affinities between the framework and specific molecules (CO₂, C₂-C₄). Therefore, the selective adsorption and separation performance of the material on CO₂/CH₄ and C₂-C₄/CH₄ are effectively improved. In addition, NKM-101 also exhibits excellent water stability, making it possible to be a practical material for the storage and purification of light hydrocarbons.

Novel Systems and Membrane Technologies for Carbon Capture

Due to the global menace caused by carbon emissions from environmental, anthropogenic, and industrial processes, it has become expedient to consider the use of systems, with high trapping potentials for these carbon-based compounds. Several prior studies have considered the use of amines, activated carbon, and other solid adsorbents. Advances in carbon capture research have led to the use of ionic liquids, enzyme-based systems, microbial filters, membranes, and metal-organic frameworks in capturing CO2. Therefore, it is common knowledge that some of these systems have their lapses, which then informs the need to prioritize and optimize their synthetic routes for optimum efficiency. Some authors have also argued about the need to consider the use of hybrid systems, which offer several characteristics that in turn give synergistic effects/properties that are better compared to those of the individual components that make up the composites. For instance, some membranes are hydrophobic in nature, which makes them unsuitable for carbon capture operations; hence, it is necessary to consider modifying properties such as thermal stability, chemical stability, permeability, nature of the raw/starting material, thickness, durability, and surface area which can enhance the performance of these systems. In this review, previous and recent advances in carbon capture systems and sequestration technologies are discussed, while some recommendations and future prospects in innovative technologies are also highlighted.

Vapor-phase linker exchange of metal-organic frameworks

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been attracting intensive attention because of their commendable potential in many applications. Postsynthetic modification for redesigning chemical characteristics and pore structures can greatly improve performance and expand functionality of MOF materials. Here, we develop a versatile vapor-phase linker exchange (VPLE) methodology for MOF modification. Through solvent-free and environment-friendly VPLE processing, various linker analogs with functional groups but not for straightforward MOF crystallization are inserted into frameworks as daughter building blocks. Besides single exchange for preparing MOFs with dual linkers, VPLE can further be performed by multistage operations to obtain MOF materials with multiple linkers and functional groups. The halogen-incorporated ZIFs exhibit good porosity, tunable molecular affinity, and impressive CO₂/N₂ and CH₄/N₂ adsorption selectivities up to 31.1 and 10.8, respectively, which are two to six times higher than those of conventional adsorbents. Moreover, VPLE can substantially enhance the compatibility of MOFs and polymers.

Microporous Metal-Organic Frameworks with Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Pores for Efficient Separation of CH4/N2 Mixture

Highly selective removal of N₂ from unconventional natural gas is considered as a viable way to increase the heat value of CH₄ and reduce the greenhouse effect caused by the direct emission of CH₄/N₂ mixture. In this work, a three-dimensional Cu-MOF with two different types of micropores was synthesized, exhibiting a high selectivity for CH₄/N₂ (10.00-12.67) and the highest sorbent selection parameter value (65.73) among the reported materials. The CH₄ molecule interacts with the framework to form multiple van der Waals interactions both in hydrophilic and hydrophobic pores, indicated by density functional theory calculations to gain a deep insight into the adsorption binding sites. In contrast, the weak polarity feature of the hydrophobic pore and the occupied open-metal sites in the hydrophilic pore result in a very low adsorption uptake of N₂. The excellent separation performance combining the good stability and regenerability guarantees this Cu-MOF to be a promising adsorbent for an efficient separation of the CH₄/N₂ mixture.

Characteristics, capability, and origin of shale gas desorption of the Longmaxi Formation in the southeastern Sichuan Basin, China

Shale gas desorption and loss is a serious and common phenomenon in the Sichuan Basin. The characteristics, capability, and origin of shale gas desorption are significant for understanding the shale gas reservoir accumulation mechanism and guiding shale gas exploration. The shale gas of the Longmaxi Formation in the southeastern Sichuan Basin was studied based on a shale gas desorption simulation experiment, combined with mineral composition, total organic carbon, specific surface area, isothermal adsorption, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) data. Here, the shale gas desorption capability was quantitatively evaluated, and its controlling factors are discussed. The results show that the shale gas desorption process within the Longmaxi Formation varies significantly. The total time of the desorption process varies from 600 min to 4400 min, and it mainly occurs by the 98 °C desorption stage. The desorption capability of the lower Formation is markedly weaker than that of the upper Formation, and it is mainly determined by the shale properties. Organic matter (OM) is the most important controlling factor. As the OM content increases, the specific surface area, methane adsorption capacity, and OM pores increase, leading to a rapid decrease in shale gas desorption capability. In addition, feldspar exhibits a positive correlation with shale gas desorption capability due to its large pores but low specific surface area.

Rational Synthesis of Chabazite (CHA) Zeolites with Controlled Si/Al Ratio and Their CO2 /CH4 /N2 Adsorptive Separation Performances

Separation of CO₂ from CH₄ and N₂ is of great significance from the perspectives of energy production and environment protection. In this work, we report the rational synthesis of chabazite (CHA) zeolites with controlled Si/Al ratio by using N,N,N-trimethyl-1-adamantammonium hydroxide (TMAdaOH) as an organic structure-directing agent, wherein the dependence of TMAdaOH consumption on the initial Si/Al ratio was investigated systematically. More TMAdaOH is required to direct the crystallization of CHA with higher Si/Al ratio. Once the product Si/Al ratio is larger than 24, the amount of TMAdaOH consumption remains nearly constant. CHA zeolites with different Si/Al ratios and charge-compensating cations were then applied for the separation of CO₂ /CH₄ /N₂ mixtures. The equilibrium selectivities predicted by ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) and ideal selectivities calculated from the ratio of Henry's constants for both CO₂ /CH₄ and CO₂ /N₂ decrease with the zeolite Si/Al ratio increasing, whereas the percentage regenerability of CO₂ presents the opposite trend. Therefore, there is a trade-off between adsorption selectivity and regenerability for the adsorbents. There is a weaker interaction between CO₂ molecules and the H-type zeolites than that on the Na-type ones, thus a higher regenerability can be achieved. This study indicates that it is possible to design CHA zeolites with different physicochemical properties to meet various adsorptive separation requirements.

Rigorous prognostication and modeling of gas adsorption on activated carbon and Zeolite-5A

Gas adsorption on various adsorbents is of highly important issue for the separation of gas mixtures in many industrial processes. In this work, estimation of pure gases (CH₄, N₂, CO₂, H₂, C₂H₄) adsorption on activated carbon (AC) and CO₂, CH₄, N₂ on Zeolite-5A adsorbent were studied by developing four different computing techniques, namely MLP-ANN, ANFIS, LSSVM, and PSO-ANFIS for a broad range of experimental data found in the literature. Temperature, pressure, pore size (only for AC) and kinetic diameter of adsorbed gases are considered as the inputs and the gas adsorption as the output parameters of the developed models. We also used several statistical and graphical tools to assess the accuracy and applicability of the proposed models. The results of the study suggest the reliability and validity of all the models developed for estimating the equilibrium adsorption of gases on the adsorbents. Also, it is found that of all the models developed, the ANN model estimates experimental data of the gas adsorption on AC more accurately due to its values of R² and AARD%, 0.9865 and 0.8948, respectively. Besides, PSO-ANFIS is the best model to prognosticate gas adsorption on zeolite 5A with R² and AARD%, 0.9897 and 0.9551, respectively.

New Class of Type III Porous Liquids: A Promising Platform for Rational Adjustment of Gas Sorption Behavior

Porous materials have already manifested their unique properties in a number of fields. Generally, all porous materials are in a solid state other than liquid, in which molecules are closely packed without porosity. "Porous" and "liquid" seem like antonyms. Herein, we report a new class of Type 3 porous liquids based on rational coupling of microporous framework nanoparticles as porous hosts with a bulky ionic liquid as the fluid media. Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) and CO₂ adsorption measurements confirm the successful engineering of permanent porosity into these liquids. Compared to common porous solid materials, as-synthesized porous liquids exhibited pronounced hysteresis loops in the CO₂ sorption isotherms even at ambient conditions (298 K, 1 bar). The unique features of these novel porous liquids could bring new opportunities in many fields including gas separation and storage, air separation and regeneration, gas transport, and permanent gas storage at ambient conditions.

Computational evaluation of aluminophosphate zeotypes for CO2/N2 separation

Zeolites and structurally related materials (zeotypes) have received considerable attention as potential adsorbents for selective carbon dioxide adsorption. Within this group, zeotypes with aluminophosphate composition (AlPOs) could be an interesting alternative to the more frequently studied aluminosilicate zeolites. So far, however, only a few AlPOs have been characterised experimentally in terms of their CO₂ adsorption properties. In this study, force-field based grand-canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations were used to evaluate the potential of AlPOs for CO₂/N₂ separation, a binary mixture that constitutes a suitable model system for the removal of carbon dioxide from flue gases. A total of 51 frameworks were considered, all of which have been reported either as pure AlPOs or as heteroatom-containing AlPO derivatives. Prior to the GCMC simulations, all structures were optimised using dispersion-corrected density-functional theory calculations. The potential of these 51 systems for CO₂/N₂ separation was assessed in preliminary calculations (Henry constants and CO₂ uptake at selected pressures). On the basis of these calculations, 21 AlPOs of particular interest were selected, for which 15 : 85 CO₂/N₂ mixture adsorption isotherms were calculated up to 10 bar. For adsorption-based separations using an adsorption pressure of 1 bar (vacuum-swing adsorption), AlPOs with GIS, ATN, ATT, and SIV topologies were predicted to be most attractive, as they combine high CO₂/N₂ selectivities (75 to 140) and reasonable CO₂ working capacities (1 to 1.7 mmol g^-1). Under pressure-swing adsorption conditions, there is a tradeoff between selectivity and working capacity: while highly selective AlPOs like GIS reach only moderate working capacities, the frameworks with the highest working capacities above 2 mmol g^-1, AFY, KFI, and SAV, have lower selectivities between 25 and 35. To gain atomic-level insights into the host-guest interactions, interaction energy maps were computed for selected AlPOs. The computational assessment presented here can guide future experimental efforts in the development and optimisation of AlPO-based adsorbents for selective CO₂ adsorption.

Hollow Carbon Spheres with Abundant Micropores for Enhanced CO2 Adsorption

The interest in the design and controllable fabrication of hollow carbon spheres (HCSs) emanates from their tremendous potential applications in adsorption, energy conversion and storage, and catalysis. However, the effective synthesis of uniform HCSs with high surface area and abundant micropores remains a challenge. In this work, HCSs with tunable microporous shells were rationally synthesized via the hard-template method using resorcinol (R) and formaldehyde (F) as a carbon precursor. HCSs with a very high surface area (1369 m²/g) and abundant micropores (0.53 cm³/g) can be obtained with the assistance of additional inorganic silanes (TEOS) simultaneously with the carbon source (RF). Interestingly, the extra-abundant micropores showed favorable adsorption for CO₂, resulting in a 1.5 times increase in the CO₂ adsorption capacity compared to that of normal HCSs under the same conditions. Meanwhile, these HCSs hold potential for use in the separation of gases such as CO₂ and N₂.

Polyfuran-Derived Microporous Carbons for Enhanced Adsorption of CO₂ and CH₄

Oxygen-doped microporous carbons were synthesized by chemical activation of polyfuran with KOH or ZnCl2 at 600 and 800 °C. It was found that KOH preserves and ZnCl2 eliminates the O-C functional groups in the activation process. The O-doped carbon activated with KOH at 800 °C exhibited a high CO2 capacity (4.96 mmol g(-1), 273 K, 1 bar) and CH4 adsorption capacity (2.27 mmol g(-1), 273 K, 1 bar). At 298 K and 1 bar, a very high selectivity for separating CO2/N2 (41.7) and CO2/CH4 (6.8) gas mixture pairs was obtained on the O-doped carbon activated with KOH at 600 °C. The excellent separation ability of the O-doped carbons was demonstrated in transient breakthrough simulations of CO2/CH4/N2 mixtures in a fixed bed adsorber. The isosteric adsorption heats of the O-doped carbons were also significantly lower than those of MOF-74 and NaX zeolite. The O-doped microporous carbon adsorbents appear to be a very promising adsorbent for CO2 capture from flue gas, biogas upgrading, and CH4 storage.

Hydroquinone and Quinone-Grafted Porous Carbons for Highly Selective CO2 Capture from Flue Gases and Natural Gas Upgrading

Hydroquinone and quinone functional groups were grafted onto a hierarchical porous carbon framework via the Friedel-Crafts reaction to develop more efficient adsorbents for the selective capture and removal of carbon dioxide from flue gases and natural gas. The oxygen-doped porous carbons were characterized with scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. CO2, CH4, and N2 adsorption isotherms were measured and correlated with the Langmuir model. An ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) selectivity for the CO2/N2 separation of 26.5 (298 K, 1 atm) was obtained on the hydroquinone-grafted carbon, which is 58.7% higher than that of the pristine porous carbon, and a CO2/CH4 selectivity value of 4.6 (298 K, 1 atm) was obtained on the quinone-grafted carbon (OAC-2), which represents a 28.4% improvement over the pristine porous carbon. The highest CO2 adsorption capacity on the oxygen-doped carbon adsorbents is 3.46 mmol g(-1) at 298 K and 1 atm. In addition, transient breakthrough simulations for CO2/CH4/N2 mixture separation were conducted to demonstrate the good separation performance of the oxygen-doped carbons in fixed bed adsorbers. Combining excellent adsorption separation properties and low heats of adsorption, the oxygen-doped carbons developed in this work appear to be very promising for flue gas treatment and natural gas upgrading.

Protection of open-metal V(III) sites and their associated CO₂/CH₄/N₂/O₂/H₂O adsorption properties in mesoporous V-MOFs

Metal-organic frameworks with open metal site are potential sorbents for the separation of gas mixtures; however, low valence metal will bind to oxygen in the open air causing a decrease in adsorption ability. We now report open-metal sites V(III) on both MIL-100V(III/IV) and MIL-101V(III/IV) that can be protected with water molecules, and which associated CO2/CH4/N2/O2 adsorption properties on these two mesoporous V-MOFs were investigated. The protective properties of water were investigated and evaluated using density functional theory simulations. The binding energy of single O2 on open-metal V(III) site was 93.278 kJ/mol, which decreased to 26.5 kJ/mol when H2O occupies the site. When the water coating is removed, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy pattern of V2p showed that the V-MOF changes to MIL-100V(IV) and MIL-101V(IV) at 298 K because of the action of O2. Under these conditions, O2 binds strongly on the open V site significantly reducing the BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) surface and CH4 adsorption volume of the V-MOFs. From the ideal adsorbed solution theory calculated, the adsorption selectivity of CH4/N2 is higher before than after binding of O2 (with V(III) site). In contrast, the adsorption selectivity of CO2/CH4 is higher after than before O2 binding (with no more V(III) sites).