Breakthrough Screening of Porous Materials: A Simple and Effective Tool for Database Generation

The release of toxic and noxious gases in the atmosphere has become a big concern, due to its adverse effect on the health and life quality in general. The development of efficient filter materials can help to tackle this issue, considering that the production of such gases in various processes cannot be prevented. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as a promising class of material to adsorb several toxic industrial chemicals (TICs). Nevertheless, identifying the suitable MOF material to adsorb a specific gas is a challenging task due to the lack of fast characterization methods. Using a mass spectrometer-detector, a simple setup has been developed and applied to register breakthrough curves and evaluate the retention capacity of selected MOFs against NH3 and H2S. The experimental results obtained using this in-house assembled device are in agreement with several literature reports, resulting in a fast tool for the development of a gas adsorption database for porous materials. Additionally, for the specific case of Ni-MOF-74, the breakthrough measurements correlate well with the surface areas of the material, providing an additional and fast quality control method to evaluate the material synthesis.