Dehumidification
performance of a high-efficient compact desiccant
cooling component named desiccant-coated heat exchanger (DCHE) highly
depends on coated desiccant materials. Currently, mesoporous silica
gels and salt-supported silica gels have been extensively studied.
Silica gels have limited adsorption quantity in the middle relative
pressure range, while salt-supported silica gels have potential threat
of corrosion. In this work, a metal–organic framework UiO-66
that can achieve good adsorption quantity without corrosion is reported.
The equilibrium adsorption test shows that UiO-66 has promising water
uptake, especially in the relative pressure range of 0.35–0.65.
The adsorption kinetics test displays that UiO-66 exhibits desirable
dynamic water uptakes and adsorption rate constant. Dehumidification
capacities of a DCHE using UiO-66 are estimated via a mathematical
model and compared with silica gel- (SG) and LiCl-supported silica
gel (SG/LiCl). Simulation results show that UiO-66 has better dehumidification
performance than both SG- and SG/LiCl-coated samples for semiarid
and semihumid climates when outdoor temperature is lower than 36 °C.
Especially, when the temperature and relative pressure of inlet air
are set as 30 °C and 0.35, respectively, its dehumidification
capacity can be 2.7 times the amount of the SG-coated one and 1.3
times of the SG/LiCl-coated one. However, it should be more prudent
in choosing UiO-66 under hot and humid climates.