Role of exposed metal sites in hydrogen storage in MOFs

The role of exposed metal sites in increasing the H2 storage performances in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has been investigated by means of IR spectrometry. Three MOFs have been considered: MOF-5, with unexposed metal sites, and HKUST-1 and CPO-27-Ni, with exposed Cu(2+) and Ni(2+), respectively. The onset temperature of spectroscopic features associated with adsorbed H2 correlates with the adsorption enthalpy obtained by the VTIR method and with the shift experienced by the H-H stretching frequency. This relationship can be ascribed to the different nature and accessibility of the metal sites. On the basis of a pure energetic evaluation, it was observed that the best performance was shown by CPO-27-Ni that exhibits also an initial adsorption enthalpy of -13.5 kJ mol(-1), the highest yet observed for a MOF. Unfortunately, upon comparison of the hydrogen amounts stored at high pressure, the hydrogen capacities in these conditions are mostly dependent on the surface area and total pore volume of the material. This means that if control of MOF surface area can benefit the total stored amounts, only the presence of a great number of strong adsorption sites can make the (P, T) storage conditions more economically favorable. These observations lead to the prediction that efficient H2 storage by physisorption can be obtained by increasing the surface density of strong adsorption sites.     

XPS and 1H NMR study of thermally stabilized Rh/CeO2 catalysts submitted to reduction/oxidation treatments

Rh/CeO2 catalysts submitted to different H2 reduction, Ar+ sputtering, and oxidation treatments have been studied by X-ray photoelectron (XPS) and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies. Depending on the reduction temperature, two stages have been identified in the reduction of the catalyst: below 473 K, reduction increases the amount of OH and Ce3+ species; above this temperature, reduction produces oxygen vacancies at the surface of the support. Volumetric and microcalorimetric techniques have been used to study hydrogen adsorption on the catalyst, and 1H NMR spectroscopy was used to differentiate hydrogen adsorbed on the metal from that adsorbed on the support. From 1H NMR and TEM results, the main metal particle size (38 A) in the Rh/CeO2 catalyst has been estimated. The influence of the support reduction on the metal adsorption capacity has also been investigated, showing that formation of oxygen vacancies at the metal-support interface enhances the electronic perturbation and decreases the hydrogen adsorption on metal particles. The comparison of data reported on catalysts of high and low surface area supports has shown that both processes are shifted to higher temperatures in the Rh/CeO2 catalyst of lower surface area.     

Theoretical study of the contribution of physisorption to the low-pressure adsorption of hydrogen on carbon nanotubes

To investigate the contribution of geometry on the adsorption process, we present a theoretical study of the low-pressure physisorption of hydrogen on isolated nanotubes and nanotube bundles through the second virial coefficient, B(AS), computed classically with an uncorrugated adsorption potential. The optimal nanotube bundle geometry at low pressure for a Lennard-Jones adsorption potential is obtained by studying the second virial coefficient, B(AS), for variable radius or bundle lattice constant. The most favorable bundle adsorption sites at low pressures and temperatures are identified for typical bundle structures and the relative contribution of interstitial sites relative to other sites is discussed as a function of temperature and pressure. The Boyle temperature behavior for the B(AS) virial coefficient is also discussed as a function of radius for isolated nanotubes. For a given nanostructure, the maximum pressure of applicability of the B(AS) approach, below which the adsorption isotherm is linear, is estimated as a criterion which depends on temperature.     

Three-site model for hydrogen adsorption on supported platinum particles: influence of support ionicity and particle size on the hydrogen coverage

Pt L(3) X-ray absorption edge data on small supported Pt particles (N < 6.5) reveals that at very low H(2) pressure or high temperature the strongest bonded H is chemisorbed in an atop position. With decreasing temperature or at higher H(2) pressure only n-fold (n = 2 or 3) sites are occupied. At high H(2) pressure or low temperature, the weakest bonded H is positioned in an "ontop" site, with the chemisorbing Pt already having a stronger bond to a H atom in an n-fold site. DFT calculations show that the adsorption energy of hydrogen increases for Pt particles on ionic (basic) supports. The combination of the DFT calculations with hydrogen chemisorption data and the analysis of the Pt L(3) X-ray absorption spectra implies that both the H coverage and/or the type of active Pt surface sites, which are present at high temperature catalytic reaction conditions, strongly depend on the ionicity of the support. The consequences for Pt catalyzed hydrogenolysis and hydrogenation reactions will be discussed.     

氢原子在Be(0001)表面吸附的密度泛函理论研究

采用第一性原理的密度泛函理论研究单个氢原子和多个氢原子在Be(0001)表面吸附性质.给出了氢吸附Be(0001)薄膜表面的原子结构、吸附能、饱和度、功函数、偶极修正等特性参数.同时也讨论了相关吸附性质与氢原子覆盖度(0.06-1.33ML)的关系.计算结果表明:氢原子的吸附位置与覆盖度之间有强烈的依赖关系,覆盖度低于0.67ML时,氢原子能量上易于占据fcc或hcp的中空位置;覆盖度为0.78ML时,中空位与桥位为氢原子的最佳吸附位;覆盖度在0.89到1.00ML时,桥位是氢原子吸附能量最有利的位置;以上覆盖度中Be(0001)表面最外层铍原子的结构均没有发生明显变化.当覆盖度为1.11-1.33ML,高覆盖度下Be(0001)表面的最外层铍原子部分发生膨胀,近邻氢原子渗入到铍表面次层,氢原子易于占据在hcp和桥位.吸附结构中的氢原子比氢分子中的原子稳定.当覆盖度大1.33ML时,计算结果没有发现相对于氢分子更稳定的吸氢结构.同时从分析偶极修正和氢原子吸附垂直高度随覆盖度的变化关系判断氢覆盖度为1.33ML时,在Be(0001)表面吸附达到饱和.     

Understanding hydrogen adsorption in metal-organic frameworks with open metal sites: a computational study

Recent experimental investigations show that the open metal sites may have a favorable impact on the hydrogen adsorption capacity of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs); however, no definite evidence has been obtained to date and little is known on the interactions between hydrogen and the pore walls of this kind of MOFs. In this work, a combined grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation and density functional theory calculation is performed on the adsorption of hydrogen in MOF-505, a recently synthesized MOF with open metal sites, to provide insight into molecular-level details of the underlying mechanisms. This work shows that metal-oxygen clusters are preferential adsorption sites for hydrogen, and the strongest adsorption of hydrogen is found in the directions of coordinatively unsaturated open metal sites, providing evidence that the open metal sites have a favorable impact on the hydrogen sorption capacity of MOFs. The storage capacity of hydrogen of MOF-505 at room temperature and moderate pressures is predicted to be low, in agreement with the outcome for hydrogen physisorption in other porous materials.     

氢同位素吸附容量与吸附剂比表面积的关系

采用容积法测量了77 K下氢气与氘气在不同微孔与介孔分子筛吸附剂上的吸附容量与比表面积. 结果表明, 同类吸附剂上氢同位素的吸附容量与其比表面积之间存在较好的线性关系, 这有力地证明了超临界温度下氢同位素吸附遵循单分子层吸附机理. 在相同的温度、压力和比表面积条件下, 氢同位素气体在微孔分子筛上的吸附容量比介孔分子筛上的大, 这是由于在吸附剂微孔内吸附势场叠加所致, 并通过构建的吸附势模型, 较好地解释了该实验结果.     

Reverse hydrogen spillover on and hydrogenation of supported metal clusters: insights from computational model studies

"Reverse" spillover of hydrogen from hydroxyl groups of the support onto supported transition metal clusters, forming multiply hydrogenated metal species, is an essential aspect of various catalytic systems which comprise small, highly active transition metal particles on a support with a high surface area. We review and analyze the results of our computational model studies related to reverse hydrogen spillover, interpreting available structural and spectral data for the supported species and examining the relationship between metal-support and metal-hydrogen interactions. On the examples of small clusters of late transition metals, adsorbed in zeolite cavities, we showed with computational model studies that reverse spillover of hydrogen is energetically favorable for late transition metals, except for Au. This preference is crucial for the chemical reactivity of such bifunctional catalytic systems because both functions, of metal species and of acidic sites, are strongly modified, in some cases even suppressed - due to partial oxidation of the metal cluster and the conversion of protons from acidic hydroxyl groups to hydride ligands of the metal moiety. Modeling multiple hydrogen adsorption on metal clusters allowed us to quantify how (i) the support affects the adsorption capacity of the clusters and (ii) structure and oxidation state of the metal moiety changes upon adsorption. In all models of neutral systems we found that the metal atoms are partially positively charged, compensated by a negative charge of the adsorbed hydrogen ligands and of the support. In a case study we demonstrated with calculated thermodynamic parameters how to predict the average hydrogen coverage of the transition metal cluster at a given temperature and hydrogen pressure.     

氢在活性炭、石墨烯和金属有机骨架上的吸附平衡

为比较不同物理吸附材料的结构参数对其储氢性能的影响,制备和选取了具有超高比表面积的活性炭、石墨烯以及金属有机骨架（MOFs）作为低温吸附储氢的典型材料。首先,利用77 K下氮气在材料上的吸附数据确定了其BET比表面积以及孔径分布的主要结构参数。其次,利用3Flex全自动微孔吸附仪在77-87 K测试了0-0.1 MPa低压下氢在各材料上的吸附量,而后在0.1-8 MPa高压条件下利用PCTPro测试了氢在各材料上的过剩吸附量。最后,分析了各材料的储氢量与其结构参数间的关系。结果表明,在低压下,影响物理吸附材料储氢量的主要因素为孔径分布小于1 nm的微孔;而高压下,氢在多孔材料上的最大过剩吸附量与材料的BET比表面积呈正相关关系,斜率为0.0059 mmol/m²。     

Study by scanning tunneling microscopy of hydrogen adsorption and desorption on Si111 7 x 7 at room temperature and at high temperature

An overview is given on the use of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) for investigation of the adsorption of hydrogen on Si(111)7 x 7 both at room temperature and at elevated temperature to finally obtain a hydrogen-saturated surface of Si(111). The initial stages are characterized by high reactivity of Si adatoms of the 7 x 7 structure. After adsorption of hydrogen on the more reactive sites in the beginning of the adsorption experiments a regular pattern, which is different for room and elevated temperature, is observed for the less reactive sites. In agreement with previous work, local 1 x 1 periodicity of the rest atom layer and the presence of di- and trihydride clusters is observed for hydrogen-saturated surface. STM has also been used to characterize surfaces from which the hydrogen atoms have been removed by thermal desorption. Finally, tip-induced desorption by large positive sample-bias voltages and by increasing the tunneling current will be described.     

Methanol synthesis on ZnO(0001). III. Free energy landscapes, reaction pathways, and mechanistic insights

The interplay of physical and chemical processes in the heterogeneous catalytic synthesis of methanol on the ZnO(0001) surface with oxygen vacancies is expected to give rise to a complex free energy landscape. A manifold of intermediate species and reaction pathways has been proposed over the years for the reduction of CO on this catalyst at high temperature and pressure conditions as required in the industrial process. In the present study, the underlying complex reaction network from CO to methanol is generated in the first place by using ab initio metadynamics for computational heterogeneous catalysis. After having "synthesized" the previously discussed intermediates in addition to finding novel species, mechanistic insights into this network of surface chemical reactions are obtained based on exploring the global free energy landscape, which is refined by investigating individual reaction pathways. Furthermore, the impact of homolytic adsorption and desorption of hydrogen at the required reducing gas phase conditions is probed by studying such processes using different charge states of the F-center.     

Effects of surface area, free volume, and heat of adsorption on hydrogen uptake in metal-organic frameworks

Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations were performed to predict adsorption isotherms for hydrogen in a series of 10 isoreticular metal-organic frameworks (IRMOFs). The results show acceptable agreement with the limited experimental results from the literature. The effects of surface area, free volume, and heat of adsorption on hydrogen uptake were investigated by performing simulations over a wide range of pressures on this set of materials, which all have the same framework topology and surface chemistry but varying pore sizes. The results reveal the existence of three adsorption regimes: at low pressure (loading), hydrogen uptake correlates with the heat of adsorption; at intermediate pressure, uptake correlates with the surface area; and at the highest pressures, uptake correlates with the free volume. The accessible surface area and free volume, calculated from the crystal structures, were also used to estimate the potential of these materials to meet gravimetric and volumetric targets for hydrogen storage in IRMOFs.     

H2 storage in carbon materials

In this work a series of commercial carbons with different structural and textural properties were characterised and evaluated for their application in hydrogen storage. The results showed that temperature has a greater influence on the storage capacity of carbons than pressure. The highest H₂ storage capacity at 298 K and 90 bar was 0.5 wt%, while at 77 K and atmospheric pressure it was 2.9 wt%. It is also showed that, in order to predict the hydrogen storage capacity of carbon material both at cryogenic and ambient temperature, the only use of BET surface area or total micropore volume obtained from N₂ adsorption isotherm may be insufficient, the characterization of the narrow microporosity is needed due to its high contribution to hydrogen adsorption capacity. The process involved in hydrogen storage in pure carbon materials seems to be physisorption. Morphological or structural characteristics have no influence, at least on gravimetric storage capacity.     

Study of Hydrogen Adsorption on Pt/WO3-ZrO2 through Pt Sites

The rate determining step and the energy barrier involved in hydrogen adsorption on Pt/WO_3- ZrO_2 were studied based on the assumption that the hydrogen adsorption occurs only through Pt sites. The rate of hydrogen adsorption on Pt/WO_3-ZrO_2 was measured in the adsorption temperature range of 323-573 K and an initial hydrogen pressure of 50 Torr.The rates of hydrogen uptake were very high for the initial few minutes and the adsorption continued for more than 5 h below 523 K.The hydrogen uptake far exceeded the H/Pt ratio of unity for all adsorption temperatures,indicating that the adsorption of hydrogen involved the dissociative adsorption of hydrogen on Pt sites to form hydrogen atoms,the spillover of hydrogen atoms onto the surface of the WO_3-ZrO2 catalyst,the diffusion of spiltover hydrogen atom over the surface of the WO_3-ZrO_2 catalyst,and the formation of protonic acid site originated from hydrogen atom by releasing an electron in which the electron may react with a second hydrogen atom to form a hydride near the Lewis acid site.The rate determining step was the spillover with the activation energy of 12.3 kJ/mol.The rate of hydrogen adsorption cannot be expressed by the rate equation based on the assumption that the rate determining step is the surface diffusion.The activity of Pt/WO_3-ZrO_2 was examined on n-heptane isomerization in which the increase of hydrogen partial pressure provided positive-effect on the conversion of n-heptane and negative-effect on the selectivity towards iso-heptane.     

NO adsorption and dissociation on Rh(111): PM-IRAS study

We have used in situ polarization-modulation infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy to study the adsorption/dissociation of NO on Rh(111). While these studies have not been conclusive regarding the detailed surface structures formed during adsorption, they have provided important new information on the dissociation of NO on Rh(111). At moderate pressures (< or =10(-6) Torr) and temperatures (<275 K), a transition from 3-fold hollow to atop bonding is apparent. Data indicate that this transition is not due to the migration of the 3-fold hollow NO but rather to the adsorption of gas-phase NO that is directed toward the atop position due to the presence of NO decomposition products, particularly chemisorbed atomic O species at the hollow sites. These results indicate that NO dissociation occurs at temperatures well below the temperature previously reported. Additionally, high pressure (1 Torr) NO exposure at 300 K results in only atop NO, calling into question the surface structures previously proposed at these adsorption conditions consisting of atop and 3-fold hollow sites.     

活性炭纤维的微孔结构水吸附

测定了两种活性炭纤维（ACF）的氮气、水吸附等温线和XPS,研究了ACF的微孔结构和表面性质,用αs图分析氮吸附等温线获得了ACF的比表面积、微孔容量和微孔径。XPS表明在ACF表面存在多种不同结合状态的氧。水在ACF上的吸附等温线呈V型,具有很大的脱附滞后环。水通过与ACF表面的氧形成氢键发生吸附。ACF表面的初始吸附点多,则在低、中压时的水吸附量就大。     

Kinetics of the reduction of the Rh(111) surface oxide: linking spectroscopy and atomic-scale information

The reduction of the surface oxide on Rh(111) by H(2) was observed in situ by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and high-resolution core level spectroscopy (HRCLS). At room temperature, H(2) does not adsorb on the oxide, only in reduced areas. Reduction starts in very few sites, almost exclusively in stepped areas. One can also initiate the reduction process by deliberately creating defects with the STM tip allowing us to examine the reduction kinetics in detail. Depending on the size of the reduced area and the hydrogen pressure, two growth regimes were found. At low H(2) pressures or small reduced areas, the reduction rate is limited by hydrogen adsorption on the reduced area. For large reduced areas, the reduction rate is limited by the processes at the border of the reduced area. Since a near-random distribution of the reduction nuclei was found and the reduction process at defects starts at a random time, one can use Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogoroff (JMAK) theory to describe the process of reduction. The microscopic data from STM agree well with spatially averaged data from HRCLS measurements.     

Hydrogen adsorption on nickel (100) single-crystal face. A Monte Carlo study of the equilibrium and kinetics

We propose a model of the dissociative adsorption of hydrogen on nickel single-crystal face. In this model, we treat the Ni(100) surface as a strongly correlated energetically heterogeneous surface, because the density functional theory (DFT) studies indicate that hydrogen atoms may adsorb either on hollow sites (energetically more favorable, binding energy 48 kJ/mol H) or bridge sites with the binding energy less by 11 kJ/mol H. The essential assumption of the proposed model is that the dissociation of the hydrogen molecule is possible only over the topmost Ni atom, and the resulting H atoms may adsorb either on two free hollow sites (but the adjacent bridge sites must be free) or two bridge sites (the adjacent hollow sites must be free). If the above condition is not fulfilled, then the dissociation and adsorption are impossible. The second assumption is that the rate (probability) of the associative desorption is limited by the rate of diffusion of H atoms on the surface. This is because the two H atoms desorb, giving an H2 molecule, only when they meet on two adjacent hollow-bridge sites. Our model recovers very well the behavior of the experimental equilibrium adsorption isotherms as well as kinetic isotherms. As a result, we stated that hydrogen atoms are not completely free on the surface, but they cannot also be considered localized at room and elevated temperatures. Additionally, while analyzing the kinetic adsorption isotherms, we stated that the rate-limiting step during the dissociative adsorption of H2 is the disintegration of the activated complex and the subsequent adsorption of hydrogen atoms.