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DOE OSTI · 3375890

Crystallization-assisted water adsorption in amorphous molecular adsorbents

Xie, Feng [Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)] (ORCID:0000000242738770)·Yu, Liang [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)]·Teat, Simon [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)] (ORCID:0000000195152602)·Shutak, Jocelyn [Univ. of North Texas, Denton, TX (United States)]·Jenkins, Trevor [Wake Forest Univ., Winston-Salem, NC (United States)]·Liu, Jiaqi [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)]·Guo, Fu-An [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)]·Ma, Lulu [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)]·Thonhauser, Timo [Wake Forest Univ., Winston-Salem, NC (United States)] (ORCID:0000000347717511)·Tan, Kui [Univ. of North Texas, Denton, TX (United States)]·Wang, Hao [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)] (ORCID:000000017732778X)·Li, Jing [Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States); Kyung Hee Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)] (ORCID:0000000177924322)
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Abstract

Efficient and stable water adsorbents are essential for removing moisture from natural gas and olefins during their production. Industrial desiccants such as alumina and zeolites require high regeneration temperatures, while metal-organic frameworks often suffer from limited long-term stability and reusability. Here, we introduce a new type of molecular desiccants (M-PyC) that, in principle, can be reused indefinitely. These simple molecular coordination complexes undergo fully reversible phase transitions between crystalline and amorphous states through the decoordination (bond breaking) and recoordination (bond reforming) of water molecules. They exhibit high water uptake (30 wt%) and superb selectivity, excluding hydrocarbons entirely. Their effectiveness for dehydration, combined with low regeneration temperature, fast desorption kinetics, low-cost and green synthesis, easy scalability to kilogram quantities, and essentially unlimited recyclability, makes them truly competitive dehydration agents for industrial separations. The use of amorphous molecular adsorbents, where crystallinity and porosity are no longer stringent requirements, and the adsorption-desorption process entirely under ambient air, offers a conceptually different approach to adsorption-based separation science and potentially realistic solution to the long-standing challenge of sustained stability in coordinate-bonded adsorbents.

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Xie, Feng [Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)] (ORCID:0000000242738770), Yu, Liang [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)], Teat, Simon [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)] (ORCID:0000000195152602), Shutak, Jocelyn [Univ. of North Texas, Denton, TX (United States)], Jenkins, Trevor [Wake Forest Univ., Winston-Salem, NC (United States)], Liu, Jiaqi [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)], Guo, Fu-An [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)], Ma, Lulu [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)], Thonhauser, Timo [Wake Forest Univ., Winston-Salem, NC (United States)] (ORCID:0000000347717511), Tan, Kui [Univ. of North Texas, Denton, TX (United States)], Wang, Hao [Shenzhen Polytechnic (China)] (ORCID:000000017732778X), Li, Jing [Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States); Kyung Hee Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)] (ORCID:0000000177924322). 2026-02-23. Crystallization-assisted water adsorption in amorphous molecular adsorbents. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69953-5

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