The team developed a unique type of zero-dimensional (0D) molecular compounds which exhibit fully reversible and rapid water removal (desorption or decoordination) and uptake (adsorption or recoordination) processes, accompanied with a structural transformation between their crystalline and amorphous states. The materials exhibit high water uptake (30 wt%) and superb selectivity, excluding hydrocarbons entirely. The effectiveness for dehydration, combined with low regeneration temperature, fast desorption kinetics, low-cost and green synthesis, easy scalability to kilogram quantities, and essentially unlimited recyclability position these materials truly competitive dehydration agents for industrial separations.
In summary, this work introduces amorphous molecular adsorbents as a new platform for which crystallinity and permanent porosity are no longer stringent requirements. Moreover, the ability to carry out adsorption-desorption process entirely under ambient air offers a conceptually different approach to adsorption-based separation science and potentially realistic solution to the long-standing challenge of sustained stability in coordinate-bonded adsorbents.
Publication:
“Crystallization-assisted water adsorption in amorphous molecular adsorbents”, Nature Communications (2026).
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-69953-5
First Author: Feng Xie
Correspondence: Prof. Jing Li (https://chem.rutgers.edu/jinglilab