Copper Base Metal Organic Frameworks and Their Ability to Store Molecular Hydrogen

Abstract

bstract: Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are an exciting topic due to versatility. One of their many uses is as a container for gases, specifically molecular hydrogen. A promising MOF was selected and constructed by mixing copper nitrate and 4-pyradine carboxylic acid to form a crystal metal organic framework. The crystal structure and composition was confirmed using powder x-ray diffraction and ICP-MS respectively. Due to subtle uncertainties about the properties of the first MOF, a second MOF was chosen due to its promising structure being previously confirmed. The MOF was treated with molecular hydrogen, and was evaluated using IR spectroscopy. The experiment showed that there are three specific sites within the unit cell of the framework capable of storing hydrogen. This is important because it suggest that an MOF could plausibly be used in industry as a container to store hydrogen.