Defective Zr-Fumarate MOFs Enable High-Efficiency Adsorption Heat Allocations

Adsorption-driven heat transfer devices incorporating an efficient “adsorbent–water” working pair are attracting great attention as a green and sustainable technology to address the huge global energy demands for cooling and heating. Herein, we report the improved heat transfer performance of a defective Zr fumarate metal–organic framework (MOF) prepared in a water solvent (Zr-Fum HT). This material exhibits an S-shaped water sorption isotherm (P/P0 = 0.05–0.2), excellent working capacity (0.497 mLH2O mL–1MOF) under adsorption-driven cooling/chiller working conditions (Tadsorption(ads) = 30 °C, Tcondensation (con) = 30 °C, and Tdesorption(des) = 80 °C), very high coefficient of performances for both cooling (0.83) and heating (1.76) together with a relatively low driving temperature at 80 °C, a remarkable heat storage capacity (423.6 kW h m–3MOF), and an outstanding evaporation heat (343.8 kW h m–3MOF). The level of performance of the resultant Zr-Fum HT MOF is above those of all existing benchmark water adsorbents including MOF-801 previously synthesized in the N,N-dimethylformamide solvent under regeneration at 80 °C which is accessible from the solar source. This is coupled with many other decisive advantages including green synthesis and high proven chemical and mechanical robustness. The microscopic water adsorption mechanism of Zr-Fum HT at the origin of its excellent water adsorption performance was further explored computationally based on the construction of an atomistic defective model online with the experimental data gained from a subtle combination of characterization techniques.