A novel microporous indium-based MOF material with unique 3-way rod-shaped secondary building units (SBUs), UTSA-22, was reported and exhibited high methane (CH4) and hydrogen (H2) storage. At 298 K and 65 bar, the total CH4 volumetric uptake of UTSA-22 is 174 cm3(STP) cm−3. Moreover, UTSA-22 shows a high CH4 working capacity of 146 cm3(STP) cm−3 in a pressure range of 5-65 bar at 298 K. In addition, UTSA-22 shows a high H2 gravimetric storage capacity (1.2 wt%) at 298 K and 100 bar.

Adsorptive separation is an appealing alternative technology to reduce the high energy and capital cost of the distillation separation of propylene/propane; however, it is very challenging to realize. A new flexible metal-organic framework (MOF) material [Zn₂(BDC-Cl)₂(Py₂TTz)] with a doubly interpenetrated pillared paddle wheel structure of pcu (primitive cubic) topology has been realized for this difficult separation for the first time. Through a judicious choice of linkers, the framework has small pore apertures that lead to much more propylene adsorption than propane. The selective adsorption relies on the sieving effect of the flexible framework. The column breakthrough experiment further demonstrated that efficient separation can be achieved under dynamic conditions.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising materials for onboard hydrogen storage thanks to the tunable pore size, pore volume, and pore geometry. In consideration of pore structures, the correlation between the pore volume and hydrogen storage capacity is examined and two empirical equations are rationalized to predict the hydrogen storage capacity of MOFs with different pore geometries. The total hydrogen adsorption under 100 bar and 77 K is predicted as n_tot = 0.085× V_p - 0.013× V_p ² for cage-type MOFs and n_tot = 0.076× V_p - 0.011× V_p ² for channel-type MOFs, where V_p is the pore volume of corresponding MOFs. The predictions by these empirical equations are validated by several MOFs with an average deviation of 5.4%. Compared with a previous equation for activated carbon materials, the empirical equations demonstrate superior accuracy especially for MOFs with high surface area (i.e., S_BET over ≈3000 m² g^-1 ). Guided by these empirical equations, a highly porous Zr-MOF NPF-200 (NPF: Nebraska Porous Framework) is examined to possess outstanding hydrogen total adsorption capacity (65.7 mmol g^-1 ) at 77 K and record high volumetric working capacity of 37.2 g L^-1 between 100 and 5 bar at 77 K.