Synergistic Effect of MIL-101/Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites on High-Pressure Ammonia Uptake

Abstract

Ammonia has emerged as a potential working fluid in adsorption heat pumps (AHPs) for clean energy conversion. It would be necessary to develop an efficient adsorbent with high-density ammonia uptake under high gas pressures in the low-temperature range for waste heat. Herein, a porous nanocomposite with MIL-101(Cr)-NH2 (MIL-A) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was developed to enhance the ammonia adsorption capacity over high ammonia pressures (3−5 bar) and low working temperatures (20−40 °C). A one-pot hydrothermal reaction could form a two-dimensional sheet-like nanocomposite where MIL-A nanoparticles were well deposited on the surface of rGO. The MIL-A nanoparticles were shown to grow on the rGO surface through chemical bonding between chromium metal centers in MIL-A and oxygen species in rGO. We demonstrated that the nanocomposite with 2% GO showed higher ammonia uptake capacity at 5 bar compared with pure MIL-A and rGO. Our strategy to incorporate rGO with MIL-A nanoparticles would further be generalizable to other metal−organic frameworks for improving the ammonia adsorption capacity in AHPs.