Progress and potential of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as novel desiccants for built environment control: A review

Kan Zu, Menghao Qin and Shuqing Cui

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2020, vol. 133, issue C

Abstract: The regulation of the balance of the sensible and latent loads remains a critical problem for built environment control. Unlike the traditional vapor compression system that features high-energy consumption and environmental-unfriendly processes, desiccants represent an alternative air-conditioning method that takes advantage of the low-grade energy, decreases the energy consumption and even employs use of water vapor. Though the desiccant-based systems can achieve spatial moisture transfer through the periodic adsorption/desorption process, however, the water-stable desiccants with high water uptake and mildly reversible adsorption are required, and the traditional desiccants cannot meet these requirements. In this respect, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), possessing a variety of structures and precise functional ability to optimize their properties, are promising porous materials exhibiting high potential for rational design and sorption-based applications. In this review, intrinsic properties and prevalent water adsorption mechanisms of the potential micro/mesoporous MOF desiccants have been elucidated. Subsequently, the selection criteria of the promising MOF desiccants for water loading removal from air in the built environment is proposed and some currently available water-stable MOFs based on different working humidity ranges have been analyzed for the potential humidity control from the aspects of microstructure, isotherms and regeneration conditions. Finally, approaches for screening the well-suited MOFs from material and system levels is presented. Overall, the cases of actual applications in the active or passive way have confirmed that MOF-based systems can effectively regulate the humidity load within the desirable range, thus, underlining the high potential of large-scale applications in the near future.

Keywords: MOFs; Intrinsic properties; Adsorption mechanism; Screening; Active/passive-type; Solid desiccant system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032120305359
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:133:y:2020:i:c:s1364032120305359

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2020.110246

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().