Nanostructure and hydrogen spillover of bridged metal-organic frameworks.

The metal-organic frameworks (MOF) with low and medium specific surface areas (SSA) were shown to be able to adsorb hydrogen via bridged spillover at room temperature (RT) up to an amount of full coverage of hydrogen in the MOF. Anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering was employed to investigate the key relationship between the structures and storage properties of the involved materials. It was found that the tunable imperfect lattice defects and the 3D pore network in the MOF crystal are the most critical structures for RT hydrogen uptake rather than the known micropores in the crystal, SSA, and Pt catalyst structure.