A bio-metal-organic framework for highly selective CO(2) capture: A molecular simulation study

A recently synthesized bio-metal-organic framework (bio-MOF-11) is investigated for CO(2) capture by molecular simulation. The adenine biomolecular linkers in bio-MOF-11 contain Lewis basic amino and pyrimidine groups as the preferential adsorption sites. The simulated and experimental adsorption isotherms of pure CO(2), H(2), and N(2) are in perfect agreement. Bio-MOF-11 exhibits larger adsorption capacities compared to numerous zeolites, activated carbons, and MOFs, which is attributed to the presence of multiple Lewis basic sites and nano-sized channels. The results for the adsorption of CO(2)/H(2) and CO(2)/N(2) mixtures in bio-MOF-11 show that CO(2) is more dominantly adsorbed than H(2) and N(2). With increasing pressure, the selectivity of CO(2)/H(2) initially increases owing to the strong interactions between CO(2) and the framework, and then decreases as a consequence of the entropy effect. However, the selectivity of CO(2)/N(2) monotonically increases with increasing pressure and finally reaches a constant. The selectivities in bio-MOF-11 are higher than in many nanoporous materials. The simulation results also reveal that a small amount of H(2)O has a negligible effect on the separation of CO(2)/H(2) and CO(2)/N(2) mixtures. The simulation study provides quantitative microscopic insight into the adsorption mechanism in bio-MOF-11 and suggests that bio-MOF-11 may be interesting for pre- and post-combustion CO(2) capture.