Investigation of cryo-adsorption hydrogen storage capacity of rapidly synthesized MOF-5 by mechanochemical method

Comparisons were made between the samples mechanochemically (MOF-5(M)) and solvothermally (MOF-5(S)) prepared for the development of efficient hydrogen storage medium. Synthesized samples were undergone structural characterization as well as adsorption equilibrium measurements of hydrogen at temperature-pressure range 77 K–87 K and 0.1–10 MPa. Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations were further conducted to study the behaviors of hydrogen molecules adsorbed on MOF-5. It shows that, besides the advantage of large scale synthesis and a lower cost, mechanochemical method respectively brings about 207% and 90.5% increments in the specific surface area and the maximum excess adsorption capacity of hydrogen at 77 K within pressure range 0–10 MPa. Results also reveal that the crystal within MOF-5(M) is regular and distributing uniformly with a mean size only one tenth of that of the MOF-5(S); at 77 K within pressure range 0–10 MPa, Toth equation can predict the adsorption equilibrium data of hydrogen on two MOF-5 samples with a mean relative error less than 1.5%. It suggests that MOF-5(M) is more promising for hydrogen storage by adsorption for practical applications.