Synthesis of Nanoporous Metal Organic Framework MIL-53-Cu and Its Application for Gas Separation

MIL-53-Cu has been synthesized hydrothermally and has been used for the first time for gas separation. MIL-53-Cu shows adsorption capacities of 8.1, 0.7 and 0.5 m.mol/g, respectively, for CH4, CO2 and H2 at 30 bar and 298 K. The high CH4 adsorption capacity of MIL-53-Cu maybe attributed to the high pore volume and large number of open metal sites. The high selectivity for CH4 over CO2 (11.5) and H2 (16.2), suggests that MIL-53-Cu is a effective adsorbent material for the separation of CH4 from gas mixtures.