Mesoporous carbon originated from non-permanent porous MOFs for gas storage and CO2/CH4 separation

Four nanoporous carbons prepared by direct carbonization of non-permanent highly porous MOF [Zn 3 (BTC) 2 ·(H 2 O) 3 ] n without any additional carbon precursors. The carbonization temperature plays an important role in the pore structures of the resultant carbons. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas of four carbon materials vary from 464 to 1671 m 2 g −1 for different carbonization temperature. All the four carbon materials showed a mesoporous structure centered at ca. 3 nm, high surface area and good physicochemical stability. Hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide sorption measurements indicated that the C1000 has good gas uptake capabilities. The excess H 2 uptake at 77 K and 17.9 bar can reach 32.9 mg g −1 and the total uptake is high to 45 mg g −1 . Meanwhile, at 95 bar, the total CH 4 uptake can reach as high as 208 mg g −1 . Moreover the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) prediction exhibited exceptionally high adsorption selectivity for CO 2 /CH 4 in an equimolar mixture at 298 K and 1 bar ( S ads = 27) which is significantly higher than that of some porous materials in the similar condition.