Renaissance of the Methane Adsorbents

Clean vehicles empowered by natural gas is an immediate solution to meet the demands of the cut off of CO2 emission, energy crisis, and air-pollution control. To boost the on-board storage capacity, safety and efficiency, great efforts have been made in developing advanced porous materials as methane adsorbents to store more gas under lower pressure or in a more compact space so-called adsorbed natural gas (ANG) technique. A blooming of methane adsorbents and the competition of methane storage records have been therefore awakened by the reticular chemistry of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), through which the adsorption sites, functionalities, and nano-confinement space can be then controlled and manipulated. In this personal account, we walk through the research paradigm shifts in MOFs for on board methane storage. Furthermore, inspiration and considerations are also discussed, which can be further transferred into the discovery of other methane adsorbents.