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 H2 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 H2 molecules. Here, we synthesize Li times Cu3(BTC)2, and Li times MIL-101 (Cr) by using lithium naphthalenide and further investigate the H2 sorption capacities of these materials. It is found that at 77 K and 1 bar, the H2 uptakes of Cu3(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 H2 uptakes.