Modeling of adsorption of CO2 in the deformed pores of MIL-53(Al).

Molecular simulations were performed to predict CO2 adsorption in flexible metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). A generic force field was fitted to our experimental data to describe the non-bonded (electrostatic and van der Waals) interactions between CO2 molecules and the large pore (lp) and narrow pore (np) forms of the MIL-53(Al) framework. With the new validated force field, it is possible to predict CO2 uptake and enthalpy of adsorption at various applied external pressures that will modify the structure's pore configuration and allow us to have more control over the adsorption/desorption process. A sensitivity analysis of MOF adsorption properties to the variation of the force field parameters was also intensively studied. It was shown that relatively small variations of the adsorbate gas model can improve the quality of the numerical predictions of the experimental data. However, the variations must be kept small enough to not modify the properties of the gas itself.