Metal-organic framework with optimally selective xenon adsorption and separation.
Nuclear energy is among the most viable alternatives to our current fossil fuel-based energy economy. The mass deployment of nuclear energy as a low-emissions source requires the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel to recover fissile materials and mitigate radioactive waste. A major concern with reprocessing used nuclear fuel is the release of volatile radionuclides such as xenon and krypton that evolve into reprocessing facility off-gas in parts per million concentrations. The existing technology to remove these radioactive noble gases is a costly cryogenic distillation; alternatively, porous materials such as metal-organic frameworks have demonstrated the ability to selectively adsorb xenon and krypton at ambient conditions. Here we carry out a high-throughput computational screening of large databases of metal-organic frameworks and identify SBMOF-1 as the most selective for xenon. We affirm this prediction and report that SBMOF-1 exhibits by far the highest reported xenon adsorption capacity and a remarkable Xe/Kr selectivity under conditions pertinent to nuclear fuel reprocessing.
Physical and Computational Science Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA.
Debasis
D
Banerjee
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of California, Berkley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Cory M
CM
Simon
Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA.
Anna M
AM
Plonka
Energy and Environmental Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA.
Radha K
RK
Motkuri
Energy and Environmental Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA.
Jian
0000-0001-5329-7408
J
Liu
Department of Chemistry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA.
Xianyin
X
Chen
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of California, Berkley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.|Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Valais, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Rue de l'Industrie 17, CH-1951 Sion, Switzerland.
Berend
0000-0003-4653-8562
B
Smit
Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA.|Department of Chemistry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA.|Photon Sciences, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA.
John B
JB
Parise
Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.|IMDEA Materials Institute, C/Eric Kandel 2, 28906 Getafe, Madrid, Spain.
Maciej
M
Haranczyk
Physical and Computational Science Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA.
Praveen K
PK
Thallapally