High-capacity water sorbent cycles without hysteresis under dry conditions
Abstract Sorbents capable of cycling water vapor under dry conditions are critical for applications such as atmospheric water harvesting, desiccation, and heat pumps; however, few existing sorbents demonstrate both hysteresis-free behavior and cycling stability. Here we show that post-synthetic exch...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59551-2 |
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| author | Julius Oppenheim Zhentao Yang Bhavish Dinakar Mircea Dincă |
| author_facet | Julius Oppenheim Zhentao Yang Bhavish Dinakar Mircea Dincă |
| author_sort | Julius Oppenheim |
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| description | Abstract Sorbents capable of cycling water vapor under dry conditions are critical for applications such as atmospheric water harvesting, desiccation, and heat pumps; however, few existing sorbents demonstrate both hysteresis-free behavior and cycling stability. Here we show that post-synthetic exchange with lithium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and tetramethylammonium in the metal-organic framework (MOF) SU-102 ([(CH3)2NH2]2[Zr(HL)2]; H4L = ellagic acid) enables high-capacity water sorption under low humidity ranging from 11.1% to 4.3%. The champion material, Mg-SU-102, exhibits sharp water uptake at 4.3% RH, reaches a high maximum gravimetric capacity of 0.41 g/g (with 0.29 g/g at 15% RH), and displays minimal capacity loss over 500 adsorption-desorption cycles, with essentially no hysteresis. We use vibrational Stark spectroscopy to probe the local electric field environment within each ion-exchanged material and show that the trend in relative humidity follows a Hofmeister-type series in which the cation affects the ability for water to solvate the framework pores. We find strong deviation from this trend for the tetramethylammonium material, as the larger cation does not undergo capillary condensation sorption, suggesting that fine control over pore functionality is necessary. Establishing a correlation between water sorption and a Hofmeister-type series provides foundational principles for the design of porous ionic sorbents. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-233b8e8d628e441c83ca0b4c30b5c70f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
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| spelling | doaj-art-233b8e8d628e441c83ca0b4c30b5c70f2025-08-20T03:53:22ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-05-011611810.1038/s41467-025-59551-2High-capacity water sorbent cycles without hysteresis under dry conditionsJulius Oppenheim0Zhentao Yang1Bhavish Dinakar2Mircea Dincă3Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, CambridgeDepartment of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, CambridgeDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, CambridgeDepartment of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, CambridgeAbstract Sorbents capable of cycling water vapor under dry conditions are critical for applications such as atmospheric water harvesting, desiccation, and heat pumps; however, few existing sorbents demonstrate both hysteresis-free behavior and cycling stability. Here we show that post-synthetic exchange with lithium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and tetramethylammonium in the metal-organic framework (MOF) SU-102 ([(CH3)2NH2]2[Zr(HL)2]; H4L = ellagic acid) enables high-capacity water sorption under low humidity ranging from 11.1% to 4.3%. The champion material, Mg-SU-102, exhibits sharp water uptake at 4.3% RH, reaches a high maximum gravimetric capacity of 0.41 g/g (with 0.29 g/g at 15% RH), and displays minimal capacity loss over 500 adsorption-desorption cycles, with essentially no hysteresis. We use vibrational Stark spectroscopy to probe the local electric field environment within each ion-exchanged material and show that the trend in relative humidity follows a Hofmeister-type series in which the cation affects the ability for water to solvate the framework pores. We find strong deviation from this trend for the tetramethylammonium material, as the larger cation does not undergo capillary condensation sorption, suggesting that fine control over pore functionality is necessary. Establishing a correlation between water sorption and a Hofmeister-type series provides foundational principles for the design of porous ionic sorbents.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59551-2 |
| spellingShingle | Julius Oppenheim Zhentao Yang Bhavish Dinakar Mircea Dincă High-capacity water sorbent cycles without hysteresis under dry conditions Nature Communications |
| title | High-capacity water sorbent cycles without hysteresis under dry conditions |
| title_full | High-capacity water sorbent cycles without hysteresis under dry conditions |
| title_fullStr | High-capacity water sorbent cycles without hysteresis under dry conditions |
| title_full_unstemmed | High-capacity water sorbent cycles without hysteresis under dry conditions |
| title_short | High-capacity water sorbent cycles without hysteresis under dry conditions |
| title_sort | high capacity water sorbent cycles without hysteresis under dry conditions |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59551-2 |
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