Density functional theory for adsorption of gas mixtures in metal-organic frameworks

In this work, a recently developed density functional theory in three-dimensional space was extended to the adsorption of gas mixtures. Weighted density approximations to the excess free energy with different weighting functions were adopted for both repulsive and attractive contributions. An equation of state for hard-sphere mixtures and a modified Benedict-Webb-Rubin equation for Lennard-Jones mixtures were used to estimate the excess free energy of a uniform fluid. The theory was applied to the adsorption of CO(2)/CH(4) and CO(2)/N(2) mixtures in two metal-organic frameworks: ZIF-8 and Zn(2)(BDC)(2)(ted). To validate the theoretical predictions, grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations were also conducted. The predicted adsorption and selectivity from DFT were found to agree well with the simulation results. CO(2) has stronger adsorption than CH(4) and N(2), particularly in Zn(2)(BDC)(2)(ted). The selectivity of CO(2) over CH(4) or N(2) increases with increasing pressure as attributed to the cooperative interactions of adsorbed CO(2) molecules. The composition of the gas mixture exhibits a significant effect on adsorption but not on selectivity.