Sorption of methane, hydrogen and carbon dioxide on metal-organic framework, iron terephthalate (MOF-235)

Iron terephthalate, MOF-235, metal-organic framework synthesized hydrothermally and was used for gas adsorption. Resulting sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET) and FT-IR analysis. Adsorption properties of CH4, H2 and CO2 on MOF-235 were investigated by volumetric measurements. The absolute adsorption capacity was found in the order of CH4 ≫ H2 > CO2. The high CH4 adsorption capacity of MOF-235 was attributed to the high pore volume and large number of open metal sites. The high selectivity for CH4 over CO2 (14.7) and H2 (8.3), suggests that MOF-235 is a potential adsorbent for the separation of CH4 from gas mixtures.