New Application of Quartz Crystal Microbalance: A Minimalist Strategy to Extract Adsorption Enthalpy

The capture and separation of CO2 is an important means to solve the problem of global warming. MOFs (metal-organic frameworks) are considered ideal candidates for capturing CO2, where the adsorption enthalpy is a crucial indicator for the screening of materials. For this purpose, we propose a new minimalist solution using QCM (quartz crystal microbalance) to extract the CO2 adsorption enthalpy on MOFs. Three kinds of MOFs with different properties, sizes and morphologies were employed to study the adsorption enthalpy of CO2 using a QCM platform and a commercial gas sorption analyzer. A Gaussian simulation calculation and previously data reported were used for comparison. It was found that the measuring errors were between 5.4% and 6.8%, proving the reliability and versatility of our new method. This low-cost, easy-to-use, and high-accuracy method will provide a rapid screening solution for CO2 adsorption materials, and it has potential in the evaluation of the adsorption of other gases.

Automated summary

The capture and separation of CO2 is crucial for addressing global warming. In this study, a new method using QCM was proposed to extract the CO2 adsorption enthalpy on MOFs, and its reliability and versatility were demonstrated through experiments.