Carbon dioxide capture-related gas adsorption and separation in metal-organic frameworks

Reducing anthropogenic CO2 emission and lowering the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has quickly become one of the most urgent environmental issues of our age. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one option for reducing these harmful CO2 emissions. While a variety of technologies and methods have been developed, the separation of CO2 from gas streams is still a critical issue. Apart from establishing new techniques, the exploration of capture materials with high separation performance and low capital cost are of paramount importance. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a new class of crystalline porous materials constructed by metal-containing nodes bonded to organic bridging ligands hold great potential as adsorbents or membrane materials in gas separation. In this paper, we review the research progress (from experimental results to molecular simulations) in MOFs for CO2 adsorption, storage, and separations (adsorptive separation and membrane-based separation) that are directly related to CO2 capture. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.