Carbon dioxide (CO2) is both a primary contributor to global warming and a major industrial impurity. Traditional approaches to carbon capture involve corrosive and energy-intensive processes such as liquid amine absorption. Although adsorptive separation has long been a promising alternative to traditional processes, up to this point there has been a lack of appropriate adsorbents capable of capturing CO2 whilst maintaining low regeneration energies. In the context of CO2 capture, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have gained much attention in the past two decades as potential materials. Their tuneable nature allows for precise control over the pore size and chemistry, which allows for the tailoring of their properties for the selective adsorption of CO2. While many candidate materials exist, the amount of research into material shaping for use in industrial processes has been limited. Traditional shaping strategies such as pelletisation involve the use of binders and/or mechanical processes, which can have a detrimental impact on the adsorption properties of the resulting materials or can result in low-density structures with low volumetric adsorption capacities. Herein, we demonstrate the use of a series of monolithic MOFs (monoUiO-66, monoUiO-66-NH2 & monoHKUST-1) for use in gas separation processes. ; D. F.-J. thanks the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (NanoMOFdeli), ERC-2016-COG 726380 and Innovate UK (104384) and EPSRC IAA. JSA would like to acknowledge the financial support from MINECO (PID2019-108453GB-C21).
A critical bottleneck for the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel has been the development of materials capable of storing it in a sufficiently compact form at ambient temperature. Here we report the synthesis of a porous monolithic metal–organic framework (MOF), which after successful packing and densification reaches 259 cm3 (STP) cm−3 capacity. This is the highest value reported to date for conformed shape porous solids, and represents a greater than 50% improvement over any previously reported experimental value. Nanoindentation tests on the monolithic MOF showed robust mechanical properties, with hardness at least 130% greater than that previously measured in its conventional MOF counterparts. Our findings represent a substantial step in the application of mechanically robust conformed and densified MOFs for high volumetric energy storage and other industrial applications. ; This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (NanoMOFdeli), ERC-2016-COG 726380, and the EPSRC IAA Partnership Development Award (RG/75759). D.F.-J. thanks the Royal Society for funding through a University Research Fellowship. J.C.T. would like to acknowledge the EPSRC (EP/N014960/1) for research funding. G.D. and P.A.M. acknowledge financial support from the EU under grant numbers 312483 ESTEEM2 and 291522 3DIMAGE. J.S.A. acknowledges financial support from MINECO (MAT2016-80285-p), H2020 (MSCA-RISE-2016/Nanomed Project) and GV (PROMETEOII/2014/004).
Widespread access to greener energy is required in order to mitigate the effects of climate change. A significant barrier to cleaner natural gas usage lies in the safety/efficiency limitations of storage technology. Despite highly porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) demonstrating record-breaking gas-storage capacities, their conventionally powdered morphology renders them non-viable. Traditional powder shaping utilising high pressure or chemical binders collapses porosity or creates low-density structures with reduced volumetric adsorption capacity. Here, we report the engineering of one of the most stable MOFs, Zr-UiO-66, without applying pressure or binders. The process yields centimetre-sized monoliths, displaying high microporosity and bulk density. We report the inclusion of variable, narrow mesopore volumes to the monoliths' macrostructure and use this to optimise the pore-size distribution for gas uptake. The optimised mixed meso/microporous monoliths demonstrate Type II adsorption isotherms to achieve benchmark volumetric working capacities for methane and carbon dioxide. This represents a critical advance in the design of air-stable, conformed MOFs for commercial gas storage. ; This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (NanoMOFdeli), ERC-2016-COG 726380. D.F.-J. thanks the Royal Society for funding through a University Research Fellowship. B.M.C. thanks the Ernest Oppenheimer Fund (Cambridge). J.S.A. would like to acknowledge financial support from MINECO (MAT2016–80285-p), GV (PROMETEOII/2014/004) and H2020 (MSCA-RISE-2016/NanoMed Project). J.G.L. acknowledges GV (GRISOLIAP/2016/089) for a research contract. J.P.M. would like to thank CRUK and The Cambridge Cancer Centre. P.Z.M. is grateful for start-up funds from the University of Sheffield. D.C.L. acknowledges the financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through the collaborative research centre SFB1032 (Project B3) and ...
Making large datasets findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable could accelerate technology development. Now, Jacobsson et al. present an approach to build an open-access database and analysis tool for perovskite solar cells. Large datasets are now ubiquitous as technology enables higher-throughput experiments, but rarely can a research field truly benefit from the research data generated due to inconsistent formatting, undocumented storage or improper dissemination. Here we extract all the meaningful device data from peer-reviewed papers on metal-halide perovskite solar cells published so far and make them available in a database. We collect data from over 42,400 photovoltaic devices with up to 100 parameters per device. We then develop open-source and accessible procedures to analyse the data, providing examples of insights that can be gleaned from the analysis of a large dataset. The database, graphics and analysis tools are made available to the community and will continue to evolve as an open-source initiative. This approach of extensively capturing the progress of an entire field, including sorting, interactive exploration and graphical representation of the data, will be applicable to many fields in materials science, engineering and biosciences. ; Funding Agencies|European UnionEuropean Commission [841386, 795079, 840751, 787289, 764787, 756962, 764047, 850937]; Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fur Materialien und Energie; Cambridge India Ramanujan Scholarship; China Scholarship CouncilChina Scholarship Council; Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD); EPSRCUK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) [EP/S009213/1]; GCRF/EPSRC SUNRISEUK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) [EP/P032591/1]; German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF)Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF) [03XP0091, ZT-0024, 03SF0540, 03SF0557A]; Helmholtz Energy Materials Foundry; The Helmholtz Innovation Laboratory HySPRINT; HyPerCells graduate school; Helmholtz AssociationHelmholtz Association; Helmholtz International Research School (HI-SCORE); Erasmus programme (CDT-PV) [EP/L01551X/1]; European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant) [841386, 795079, 840751]; Royal Society University Research FellowshipRoyal Society of London [UF150033]; SNaPSHoTs (BMBF)Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF); SPARC II; German Research Foundation (DFG)German Research Foundation (DFG) [SPP2196]; National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [51872014]; Recruitment Programme of Global Experts; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central UniversitiesFundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities; 111 projectMinistry of Education, China - 111 Project [B17002]; US Department of Energys Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) agreementUnited States Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-EE0008551]; Colombia Scientific Programme [FP44842-218-2018]; committee for the development of research (CODI) of the Universidad de Antioquia [2017-16000]; Spanish MINECOSpanish Government [SEV-2015-0522]; Swedish research council (VR)Swedish Research Council [2019-05591]; Swedish Energy AgencySwedish Energy AgencyMaterials & Energy Research Center (MERC) [2020-005194]
