Elastic Layered Metal-organic Framework Sorbents for Carbon Capture

Introduction Elastic layered metal-organic framework (ELM) adsorbents exhibit a flexible two-dimensional latent porous crystalline structure. ELMs undergo abrupt reversible gated sorption transitions from an empty collapsed structure to a filled expanded porous state through cooperative adsorption of guest molecules between layer planes. Gated adsorption has been observed for methane, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and other gases [1]. The ELM gating transition and associated hysteresis loop is different than the gas condensation phase transition commonly observed for other nanoporous adsorbents, in that it is induced by rearrangement of the MOF structure rather than by adsorbent pore size distribution effects.