Combination of High-Throughput Screening and Assembly to Discover Efficient Metal–Organic Frameworks on Kr/Xe Adsorption Separation

Recycling Kr and Xe from used nuclear fuel (UNF) is conducive to regenerating economy and protecting the environment, and it is urgent to screen or design high-performance cutting-edge metal–organic framework (MOF) materials for Kr/Xe adsorption separation. After grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations of Kr/Xe adsorption separation on 11,000 frameworks in CoRE MOFs (2019), the important structure–adsorption property relationship (SAPR) was induced; that is, the porosity (φ) at 0.30–0.40, LCD/PLD at 1.00–1.49, density (ρ) range between 1.20 and 2.30 g/cm3, and PLD at 2.40–3.38 Å can be utilized to screen for high-performance G-MOFs and hMOFs. In addition, the key “genes” (metal nodes and linkers) of MOFs determining the Kr/Xe adsorption separation were data-mined by a machine learning technique, which were assembled into novel MOFs. After comprehensive consideration of thermal stability and the adsorbent performance score (APS), eight promising MOFs on Kr/Xe separation with the APS more than 1290.89 were screened out and assembled, which are better than most of the reported frameworks. Note that the adsorption isotherms of these MOFs on Kr and Xe belong to type I curve with the thermodynamic equilibrium mechanism on Kr/Xe based on the confinement effect. Furthermore, according to the electronic structure calculations of the independent gradient model based on Hirshfeld partition (IGMH) and energy decomposition analysis, it is found that the interactions between guests and frameworks are vdW forces with dominant induction energy (Eind). In addition, the electrostatic potential gradients of frameworks are generally linearly negative correlated with Kr uptakes. Therefore, both the geometrical and electronic structures dominate the adsorption separation performance on Kr/Xe. Interestingly, these eight MOFs are also suitable for the separation of CH4/H2 with considerable selectivities and CH4 uptakes of up to 2566.67 and 3.04 mmol/g, respectively. Herein, the accurately constructed SAPR and material genomics strategy should be helpful for the experimental discovery of novel MOFs on Kr/Xe separation experimentally.