Rational design of a robust aluminum metal-organic framework for multi-purpose water-sorption-driven heat allocations.

Cho, Kyung Ho; Borges, D Damasceno; Lee, U-Hwang; Lee, Ji Sun; Yoon, Ji Woong; Cho, Sung June; Park, Jaedeuk; Lombardo, Walter et al. · Nat Commun · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Adsorption-driven heat transfer technology using water as working fluid is a promising eco-friendly strategy to address the exponential increase of global energy demands for cooling and heating purposes. Here we present the water sorption properties of a porous aluminum carboxylate metal-organic framework, [Al(OH)(C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>3</sub>NO<sub>4</sub>)]·nH<sub>2</sub>O, KMF-1, discovered by a joint computational predictive and experimental approaches, which exhibits step-like sorption isotherms, record volumetric working capacity (0.36 mL mL<sup>-1</sup>) and specific energy capacity (263 kWh m<sup>-3</sup>) under cooling working conditions, very high coefficient of performances of 0.75 (cooling) and 1.74 (heating) together with low driving temperature below 70 °C which allows the exploitation of solar heat, high cycling stability and remarkable heat storage capacity (348 kWh m<sup>-3</sup>). This level of performances makes this porous material as a unique and ideal multi-purpose water adsorbent to tackle the challenges of thermal energy storage and its further efficient exploitation for both cooling and heating applications.