Search for: All records

In recent decades, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have gained recognition for their potential in multicomponent gas separations. Though molecular simulations have revealed structure–property relationships of MOF–adsorbate systems, they can be computationally expensive and there is a need for surrogate models that can predict the adsorption data faster. In this work, an active learning (AL) protocol is introduced that can predict multicomponent gas adsorption in a MOF for a range of thermodynamic conditions. This methodology is applied to build a model for the adsorption of three different gas mixtures (CO2–CH4, Xe–Kr, and H2S–CO2) in the MOF Cu-BTC. A Gaussian process regression (GPR) model is used to fit the data as well to leverage its predicted uncertainty to drive the learning. The training data is generated using grand-canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations as points are iteratively added to the model to minimize the predicted uncertainty. Also, a criteria which captures the perceived performance of the GPs is introduced to terminate the AL process when the perceived accuracy threshold is met. The three systems are tested for a pressure–mole fraction (P–X), and a pressure–mole fraction–temperature (P–X–T) feature space. It is demonstrated that AL one only needs a fraction of the data from simulations to build a reliable surrogate model for predicting mixture adsorption. Further, the final GP fit from AL outperforms ideal adsorbed solution theory predictions. 

High-throughput molecular simulations and machine learning (ML) have been implemented to adequately screen a large number of metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) for applications involving adsorption. Grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations have proven effective in calculating the adsorption capacity at given pressures and temperatures, but they can require expensive computational resources. While they can be resource-efficient, ML models can require large datasets, creating a need for algorithms that can efficiently characterize adsorption; active learning (AL) can play a very important role in this regard. In this work, we make use of Gaussian process regression (GPR) to model pure component adsorption of nitrogen at 77 K from 10−5 to 1 bar, methane at 298 K from 10 −5 to 100 bar, carbon dioxide at 298 K from 10−5 to 100 bar, and hydrogen at 77 K from 10−5 to 100 bar on PCN-61, MgMOF-74, DUT-32, DUT-49, MOF-177, NU-800, UiO-66, ZIF-8, IRMOF-1, IRMOF-10, and IRMOF-16. The GPR model requires an initial training of the model with an initial dataset, the prior one, and, in this study of evaluating AL, we make use of three different prior selection schemes. Each prior scheme is updated with a sampling point resulting from the GP model uncertainties. This protocol continues until a maximum GPR relative error of 2% is attained. We make a recommendation on the best prior selection scheme for the total 44 adsorbate−adsorbent pairs primarily making use of the mean absolute error and the total amount of points required for convergence of the model. To further evaluate the AL framework, we apply the BET consistency criteria on the simulated and GP nitrogen isotherms and compare the resulting surface areas. 

The large number of possible structures of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and their limitless potential applications have motivated molecular modelers and researchers to develop methods and models to efficiently assess MOF performance. Some of the techniques include large-scale high-throughput molecular simulations and machine learning models. Despite those advances, the number of possible materials and the potential conditions that could be used still pose a formidable challenge for model development requiring large data sets. Therefore, there is a clear need for algorithms that can efficiently explore the spaces while balancing the number of simulations with prediction accuracy. Here, we present how active learning can sequentially select simulation conditions for gas adsorption, ultimately resulting in accurate adsorption predictions with an order of magnitude lower number of simulations. We model adsorption of pure components methane and carbon dioxide in Cu–BTC. We employ Gaussian process regression (GPR) and use the resulting uncertainties in the predictions to guide the next sampling point for molecular simulation. We outline the procedure and demonstrate how this model can emulate adsorption isotherms at 300 K from 10 −6 to 300 bar (methane)/100 bar (carbon dioxide). We also show how this procedure can be used for predicting adsorption on a temperature–pressure phase space for a temperature range of 100 to 300 K, and pressure range of 10 −6 to 300 bar (methane)/100 bar (carbon dioxide).