Current Status and Perspective of Hydrogen/Methane Storage In Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs)*

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising materials for onboard hydrogen and methane storage, thanks to their tunable pore size, pore-volume, and pore geometry. We will discuss the current status of H₂/CH₄ storage in MOFs,
mostly based on our own studies[1-3] obtained from a vast number of MOFs.
We particularly report the simulation-motivated synthesis of ultra porous MOFs based on metal trinuclear clusters, namely, NU-1501-M (M = Al or Fe), which yielded impressive gravimetric and volumetric storage performances for hydrogen and methane: NU-1501-Al surpasses the gravimetric methane storage DOE target and has a deliverable capacity of 14% by weight for hydrogen.

[1] Balancing volumetric and gravimetric uptake in highly porous materials for clean energy
Z Chen, et al. Science 368 (6488), 297-303 (2020)
[2] Optimization of the Pore Structures of MOFs for Record High Hydrogen Volumetric Working Capacity, X Zhang, et al. Advanced Materials 32 (17), 1907995 (2020)
[3] Tailoring the pore geometry and chemistry in microporous metal-organic frameworks for high methane storage working capacity, K Shao, et al, Chemical Communications 55 (76), 11402-11405 (2019).