Mesoporous Silica-Guided Synthesis of Metal-Organic Framework with Enhanced Water Adsorption Capacity for Smart Indoor Humidity Regulation

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising for indoor humidity regulation due to steep stepwise water uptake and moderate regeneration temperature. Current approaches for performance improvement of MOFs such as impregnating hygroscopic salts and grafting functional groups face the challenge of corrosion and instability. Herein, a template-guided tuning strategy is proposed to synthesize binary nanocomposite. Highly ordered mesoporous channels of MCM-41 provide uniform nucleation sites for MOF growth, enabling a 21.5% promotion of specific surface area (3188.14 m(2) g(-1)) and 23.4% improvement of water uptake (1.53 g g(-1) at 20 degrees C/90% relative humidity) for the nanocomposite compared with parent MIL-101(Cr). The fast kinetics and superior stability together guarantee its practical application. Further, a paradigm of continuous indoor humidity regulation driven by sunlight is demonstrated, which realizes smart regulation of the indoor humidity to the human comfort zone (40-60%) with near-zero energy input.

Automated summary

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show potential for indoor humidity regulation due to their steep water uptake and moderate regeneration temperature. However, current methods for enhancing their performance face challenges of corrosion and instability. In this study, a template-guided tuning strategy is proposed, resulting in a binary nanocomposite with improved properties. The nanocomposite exhibits a higher specific surface area and water uptake compared to the parent material, MIL-101(Cr). Furthermore, the nanocomposite demonstrates efficient and stable humidity regulation driven by sunlight with minimal energy input.