Metal−Organic Frameworks for Methane Storage

Abstract

Natural gas has demonstrated potential as an alternative fuel for vehicular application due to its abundance and low price. With the goal of practical natural gas vehicles, tremendous efforts have been dedicated to find an optimal method to store natural gas in a cheap and feasible tank with an economic driving range. The structural richness, extraordinary high porosity, and large surface area endow metal−organic frameworks as a new category of sorbents for natural gas storage. An introduction of the fundamentals of methane storage is presented in order to improve understanding of important sorption concepts. Several benchmark MOFs with high gravimetric and volumetric methane capacities are enumerated with detailed analyses on their adsorption sites and heat of adsorption. Based on insights of framework-methane interactions, a couple of optimal design characteristics are identified, which facilitate the design and synthesize of new MOFs for methane storage.