Zinc metal-organic framework as a durable sorbent for deep capture of SO₂ and NH₃ in humid air

TY - JOUR

T1 - Zinc metal-organic framework as a durable sorbent for deep capture of SO2 and NH3 in humid air

AU - Zhang, Xinning

AU - Li, Yuan

AU - Ma, Xiaojie

AU - Wang, Bo

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2026/2/26

Y1 - 2026/2/26

N2 - The efficient capture of ambient SO2 and NH3 is essential to protect human health and the environment. However, the respectively acidic and basic nature of the two hazards along with their low-level presence, significantly challenges the current adsorbents. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) featuring open metal sites offer the advantage of strong affinity to both SO2 and NH3, but their practical implementation is largely hampered by the performance diminishment and structure collapse in humid air. Here we report the non-covalent adsorption of acidic SO2 and basic NH3 on a single Zn MOF platform (FJI-H29) as well as its enhanced capture performance for low-pressure SO2 and NH3 in humid air. Guaranteed by the comparable-diameter channel and rich pore-decorations including uncoordinated O and N atoms, the framework exhibits superior overall uptake performance for low-pressure (< 0.5 kPa) SO2 and NH3 compared to the reported state-of-the-art amphoteric MOF sorbents, and achieves an extraordinarily high dense packing of the two dissimilar gases at 100 kPa. Moreover, FJI-H29 shows remarkable delays in breakthrough, corresponding to a 130% and 90% increased uptake for SO2 and NH3 in the presence of humidity. This work may pave the way for the development of acid-base amphoteric MOF sorbents under humid conditions.

AB - The efficient capture of ambient SO2 and NH3 is essential to protect human health and the environment. However, the respectively acidic and basic nature of the two hazards along with their low-level presence, significantly challenges the current adsorbents. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) featuring open metal sites offer the advantage of strong affinity to both SO2 and NH3, but their practical implementation is largely hampered by the performance diminishment and structure collapse in humid air. Here we report the non-covalent adsorption of acidic SO2 and basic NH3 on a single Zn MOF platform (FJI-H29) as well as its enhanced capture performance for low-pressure SO2 and NH3 in humid air. Guaranteed by the comparable-diameter channel and rich pore-decorations including uncoordinated O and N atoms, the framework exhibits superior overall uptake performance for low-pressure (< 0.5 kPa) SO2 and NH3 compared to the reported state-of-the-art amphoteric MOF sorbents, and achieves an extraordinarily high dense packing of the two dissimilar gases at 100 kPa. Moreover, FJI-H29 shows remarkable delays in breakthrough, corresponding to a 130% and 90% increased uptake for SO2 and NH3 in the presence of humidity. This work may pave the way for the development of acid-base amphoteric MOF sorbents under humid conditions.

KW - Adsorption

KW - Ammonia

KW - Deep removal

KW - Metal-organic frameworks

KW - Sulfur dioxide

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105019491871

U2 - 10.1016/j.seppur.2025.135791

DO - 10.1016/j.seppur.2025.135791

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105019491871

SN - 1383-5866

VL - 382

JO - Separation and Purification Technology

JF - Separation and Purification Technology

M1 - 135791

ER -