Rational design of a robust aluminum metal-organic framework for multi-purpose water-sorption-driven heat allocations

Adsorption-driven heat transfer technology using water as working fluid is a promising eco-friendly strategy to address the exponential increase of global energy demands for cooling and heating purposes. Here we present the water sorption properties of a porous aluminum carboxylate metal-organic framework, [Al(OH)(C6H3NO4)]center dot nH(2)O, KMF-1, discovered by a joint computational predictive and experimental approaches, which exhibits step-like sorption isotherms, record volumetric working capacity (0.36mLmL(-1)) and specific energy capacity (263 kWh m(-3)) under cooling working conditions, very high coefficient of performances of 0.75 (cooling) and 1.74 (heating) together with low driving temperature below 70 degrees C which allows the exploitation of solar heat, high cycling stability and remarkable heat storage capacity (348 kWh m(-3)). This level of performances makes this porous material as a unique and ideal multi-purpose water adsorbent to tackle the challenges of thermal energy storage and its further efficient exploitation for both cooling and heating applications. (A)dsorption-based heat transfer devices are attractive for clean energy resources, but those using water as the working fluid require suitable water adsorbents. Here the authors use computation and experiment to develop an aluminum-based metal-organic framework adsorbent for adsorption-driven heat transfer devices.