Experimental measurements and molecular simulations were conducted for two zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, ZIF-8 and ZIF-76. The transferability of the force field was tested by comparing molecular simulation results of gas adsorption with experimental data available in the literature for other ZIF materials (ZIF-69). Owing to the good agreement observed between simulation and experimental data, the simulation results can be used to identify preferential adsorption sites, which are located close to the organic linkers. Topological mapping of the potential-energy surfaces makes it possible to relate the preferential adsorption sites, Henry constant, and isosteric heats of adsorption at zero coverage to the nature of the host-guest interactions and the chemical nature of the organic linker. The role played by the topology of the solid and the organic linkers, instead of the metal sites, upon gas adsorption on zeolite-like metal-organic frameworks is discussed.

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This study deals with the enhancement of CO 2 uptake by ligand functionalization of zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) materials. The ligand dipole moment could be considered as one of the main criteria for CO 2 adsorption enhancement. To verify this hypothesis, an experimentalÀ computational study was performed on an isoreticular ZIF series with sodalite (SOD) topology using published structures (ZIF-8, ZIF-90, and ZIF-Cl) as well as hypothetical structures (ZIF-COOH and ZIF-NO 2 ) designated using DFT calculations. An analysis of structural and adsorptive properties was proposed for these materials used to separate CO 2 from CH 4 , CO, or N 2 gas. The accuracy of the calculated results was validated by comparison with our own experimental results. An exponential relationship between the ligand dipole moments and the isosteric heat of adsorption of CO 2 was highlighted. Modifying the nature of the linker (dipole moment) allows a 5-to 7-fold improvement in CO 2 selectivity for CO 2 /CH 4 , CO 2 /N 2 , and CO 2 /CO mixtures.

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We investigate finite-size effects on diffusion in confined fluids using molecular dynamics simulations and hydrodynamic calculations. Specifically, we consider a Lennard-Jones fluid in slit pores without slip at the interface and show that the use of periodic boundary conditions in the directions along the surfaces results in dramatic finite-size effects, in addition to that of the physically relevant confining length. As in the simulation of bulk fluids, these effects arise from spurious hydrodynamic interactions between periodic images and from the constraint of total momentum conservation. We derive analytical expressions for the correction to the diffusion coefficient in the limits of both elongated and flat systems, which are in excellent agreement with the molecular simulation results except for the narrowest pores, where the discreteness of the fluid particles starts to play a role. The present work implies that the diffusion coefficients for wide nanopores computed using elongated boxes suffer from finite-size artifacts which had not been previously appreciated. In addition, our analytical expression provides the correction to be applied to the simulation results for finite (possibly small) systems. It applies not only to molecular but also to all mesoscopic hydrodynamic simulations, including Lattice-Boltzmann, Multiparticle Collision Dynamics or Dissipative Particle Dynamics, which are often used to investigate confined soft matter involving colloidal particles and polymers.