Direct observation of hydrogen adsorption sites and nanocage formation in metal-organic frameworks

The hydrogen adsorption sites in MOF5 were determined using neutron powder diffraction along with first-principles calculations. The metal-oxide cluster is primarily responsible for the adsorption while the organic linker plays only a secondary role. Equally important, at low temperatures and high-concentration, H-2 molecules form unique interlinked high-symmetry nanoclusters with intermolecular distances as small as 3.0 angstrom and H-2 uptake as high as 11 wt %. These results hold the key to optimizing metal-organic framework (MOF) materials for hydrogen storage applications and also suggest that MOFs can be used as templates to create artificial interlinked hydrogen nanocages with novel properties.