Natural gas, consisting primarily of methane, is a promising vehicular fuel. Efficient methane storage is critically important for facilitating the wide application of natural gas in automobiles. In 2012, ambitious targets were proposed for adsorbent-based methane storage by U.S. Department of Energy. Porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising methane adsorbents. In this talk, I will discuss our recent efforts to rationally search for MOFs with high methane storage capacities. In addition to pursuing high storage capacities, there also exist other challenges that we need to address. MOFs often exist as powders, and practical methane storage application requires dense packing of the MOF powders under mechanical compression without collapsing the pores. One limitation of MOFs with high porosities is that they usually exhibit weak mechanical stabilities, in particular, rather low stabilities against shear stress that can easily lead to pore collapse. I will discuss the mechanical stabilities of several benchmark MOFs (MOF-5, ZIF-8, HKUST-1, MOF-74 etc.), explain the origin of the low shear stabilities of MOFs, and propose viable route to improve them. Finally, I will talk about the methane storage potential of several Zr-MOFs, which have excellent air stabilities and mechanical stabilities.

Porous metal-organic frameworks: Mechanical stabilities and methane storage applications

246th National Meeting (2013)

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