Storage and Diffusion of Carbon Dioxide in the Metal Organic Framework MOF-5A Semi-empirical Molecular Dynamics Study

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted increasing attention due to their high porosity for exceptional gas storage applications. MOF-5 belongs to the family of isoreticular MOFs (IRMOFs) and consists of Zn4O6+ clusters linked by 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate. Due to the large number of atoms in the unit cell, molecular dynamics simulation based on density functional theory has proved to be too demanding, while force field models are often inadequate to model complex host–guest interactions. To overcome this limitation, an alternative semi-empirical approach using a set of approximations and extensive parametrization of interactions called density functional tight binding (DFTB) was applied in this work to study CO2 in the MOF-5 host. Calculations of pristine MOF-5 yield very good agreement with experimental data in terms of X-ray diffraction patterns as well as mechanical properties, such as the negative thermal expansion coefficient and the bulk modulus. In addition, different loadings of CO2 were introduced, and the associated self-diffusion coefficients and activation energies were investigated. The results show very good agreement with those of other experimental and theoretical investigations. This study provides detailed insights into the capability of semi-empirical DFTB-based molecular dynamics simulations of these challenging guest@host systems. Based on the comparison of the guest–guest pair distributions observed inside the MOF host and the corresponding gas-phase reference, a liquid-like structure of CO2 can be deduced upon storage in the host material.