Experimental Evaluation of the Adsorption,Diffusion, and Separation of CH4/N2 and CH4/CO2 Mixtures on Al-BDC MOF

Adsorption equilibrium, thermodynamics, and kinetics of CH₄, N₂, and CO₂ were investigated by volumetric-chromatographic and inverse gas chromatographic (IGC) methods on the Al-BDC MOF. The binary adsorption data from the volumetric-chromatographic experiments represents that the Al-BDC MOF has a high CO₂/CH₄ selectivity ca. 11 and a CH₄/N₂ selectivity ca. 4.3 at 303 K, and appears to be a good candidate for the CH₄ separation. The initial adsorption heats of CH₄, N₂, and CO₂ on the Al-BDC MOF were determined to be 15.3, 11.5, and 32.2 kJmol^?1 by IGC method, respectively. Moreover, the micropore diffusivities of N₂, CH₄ and CO₂ in the Al-BDC MOF at 303 K were also estimated to be 1.58 × 10^?7 cm²/s, 7.04 × 10^?8 cm²/s, and 3.95 × 10^?9 cm²/s, respectively. The results indicate that micropores play a crucial role in the adsorptive separation of the CH₄/N₂ and CH₄/CO₂ mixtures, and the IGC method is a validity manner to estimate the thermodynamic and kinetic parameters of MOF adsorbents.