posted on 2019-09-18, 19:38authored byR. M. Madero-Castro, J. M. Vicent-Luna, S. Calero
As
an alternative option to conventional fuels, biofuels based
on light alcohols are receiving great attention. In this context,
we investigate the adsorption mechanism of light alcohols in the hydrophobic
metal–organic framework MAF-6. To study the effect of the conformation
of molecules in the adsorption process, we evaluate the effect of
the length of the alkyl chain of linear alcohols (methanol, ethanol,
propanol, and butanol) and branched alcohols (2-propanol, 2-butanol,
and tert-butanol). We perform Monte Carlo simulations
in the grand-canonical ensemble to study the adsorption and energetic
properties of the systems. We analyze the structural organization
and the nucleation mechanism of the molecules of alcohol and the dynamics
of the adsorbed molecules within the big cavities of MAF-6. We found
that the initial step of adsorption is governed by the interaction
of the adsorbates with the structure, while in saturation, the adsorbate–adsorbate
interactions gain importance.