Lithium doping on metal-organic frameworks for enhancing H2 Storage

Hydrogen storage in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is an important and hot topic in hydrogen economics. Unfortunately, no one virgin MOF material can meet the requirement of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) by now. Thus, many strategies for enhancing hydrogen uptake have been proposed. Recently, both experimental and theoretical researches indicate that H-2 adsorption capacities of MOFs could be enhanced via doping alkali metal cations to the frameworks, particularly Li+, owing to the strong affinity of Li+ for H-2 molecules. Here, we synthesize Li center dot Cu-3(BTC)(2), and Li center dot MIL-101 (Cr) by using lithium naphthalenide and further investigate the H-2 sorption capacities of these materials. It is found that at 77 K and 1 bar, the H-2 uptakes of Cu-3(BTC)(2) and MIL-101 (Cr) are increased by 45% and 43%, respectively, after doping lithium, which indicates that the lithium doping does provide an effective approach for enhancing H-2 uptakes. Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.