Superior Storage and Controlled Release of Oxygen by Solid Clathrates under Ambient Conditions

초록

A concentrated O2 supply is essential in medical systems, submarines, aircraft, and in space technology. However, it remains challenging to discover solid materials for O2 storage, particularly those that offer structural stability and O2-capturing characteristics under ambient conditions. Here, we report solid hydroquinone clathrate crystals encapsulating O2 molecules, potentially allowing long-term storage and recycling at room temperature and ambient pressure. Through comprehensive structural analyses, molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory calculations, we identify an energetically favorable and cooperative ordering of host and guest molecules to build hydrogen-bonded organic clathrate frameworks from amorphous morphology. Hydroquinone clathrate has a capacity of 2.45 mmol g-1 for O2 storage at 1 bar and 298 K, far exceeding the capabilities of earlier porous nanostructured materials. In both as-synthesized powder and pellet forms, this hydroquinone clathrate fully retains its O2 storage performance for a long time over 100 days. The controlled release of O2 from hydroquinone clathrate pellets can be tuned simply by temperature variations with excellent cycling stability, showing no loss of the O2 uptake after repeated cycles.

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