Computational screening of iodine uptake in zeolitic imidazolate frameworks in a water-containing system

Iodine capture is of great environmental significance due to the high toxicity and volatility of I-2. Here we conduct a systematic computational investigation of iodine adsorption in zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) by adopting the grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulation and the density functional theory (DFT) method. The results confirm the vital structural factors for iodine adsorption at 298 K and moderate pressures including metal sites, organic linkers, symmetry, and topology types. The uptake will be enhanced by active metal sites, the simple imidazolate linker and single asymmetric linkers with polar functional groups. The symmetry effect is stronger than the surface properties. Meanwhile low steric hindrance is more beneficial than polar functional groups to iodine adsorption. The specific topology types like mer bringing large surface areas and large diameter cages result in high iodine capacities. Iodine molecules tend to locate in cages with large diameters and aggregates along the sides of cages. In contrast, water prefers small diameter cages. In hydrophilic materials, water has a negative impact on iodine uptake due to its similar adsorption sites to iodine. The selectivity of iodine over water increases with increasing water content due to the large diameter cages of ZIFs. This work proves that ZIFs can be identified as efficient and economical adsorbents with high diversity for iodine in a water-containing system. Furthermore, it provides comprehensive insights into key structural factors for iodine uptake and separation in silver-free porous solids.