Hydrogen adsorption on metal-organic framework (MOF-5) synthesized by DMF approach

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), especially MOF-5, are believed to be promising new porous materials for hydrogen adsorption. A comparative study of material synthesis, characterization and hydrogen adsorption was performed to examine the effects of different synthesis conditions on crystal structure, pore textural property and hydrogen adsorption performance of MOF-5 materials. Three MOF-5 samples synthesized with dimethyl formamide (DFM) as solvent and slightly different procedures have shown similar phase structure and chemical composition, diverse crystal structures, varying pore textural properties and different hydrogen adsorption performance. It was established from the experimental results that higher order of crystallinity in the MOF-5 materials generates better adsorbents with larger crystal size, higher specific surface area, uniform pore size distribution (PSD), larger hydrogen adsorption capacity and faster hydrogen diffusion rate in MOF-5 adsorbents. The best MOF-5 sample synthesized in this work (MOF-5(γ)) has a Langmuir specific surface area of 1157 m²/g; it can adsorb 0.5 wt.% of hydrogen at 77 K and 800 mmHg; and results in hydrogen diffusivity inside MOF-5 crystal of 2.3 × 10⁻⁹ cm²/s. The density functional theory reasonably predicts the presence of mesopores and macropores in all three MOF-5 samples synthesized in this work.