Adsorptive heat transformation systems such as adsorption thermal batteries and chillers can provide space heating and cooling in a more environmental friendly way. However, their use is still hindered by their relatively poor performances and large sizes due to the limited properties of solid adsorbents. Here, the spray‐drying continuous‐flow synthesis of a new type of solid adsorbents that results from combining metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs), such as UiO‐66, and hygroscopic salts, such as CaCl₂ has been reported. These adsorbents, commonly named as composite salt in porous matrix (CSPM) materials, allow improving the water uptake capabilities of MOFs while preventing their dissolution in the water adsorbed; a common characteristic of these salts due to the deliquescence effect. It is anticipated that MOF‐based CSPMs, in which the percentage of salt can be tuned, are promising candidates for thermal batteries and chillers. In these applications, it is showed that a CSPM made of UiO‐66 and CaCl₂ (38% w/w) exhibits a heat storage capacity of 367 kJ kg⁻¹ , whereas a second CSPM made of UiO‐66 and CaCl₂ (53% w/w) shows a specific cooling power of 631 W kg⁻¹ and a coefficient of performance of 0.83, comparable to the best solid adsorbents reported so far.

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) usually require meticulous removal of the solvent molecules to unlock their potential porosity. Herein we report a novel one-step method for activating MOFs based on the photothermal effect induced by directly irradiating them with a UV-Vis lamp. The localized light-to-heat conversion produced in the MOF crystals upon irradiation enables a very fast solvent removal, thereby significantly reducing the activation time to as low as 30 min and supressing the need for time-consuming solvent-exchange procedures and vacuum conditions. This approach is successful for a broad range of MOFs, including HKUST-1, UiO-66-NH2, ZIF-67, CPO-27-M (M = Zn, Ni, and Mg), Fe-MIL-101-NH2, and IRMOF-3, all of which exhibit adsorption bands in the light emission range. In addition, we anticipate that this photothermal activation can also be used to activate covalent-organic frameworks (COFs).

Covalent postsynthetic modification (PSM) of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) has attracted much attention due to the possibility of tailoring the properties of these porous materials. Schiff-base condensation between an amine and an aldehyde is one of the most common reactions in the PSM of MOFs. Here, we report the use of the spray drying technique to perform this class of organic reactions, either between discrete organic molecules or on the pore surfaces of MOFs, in a very fast (1–2 s) and continuous way. Using spray drying, we show the PSM of two MOFs, the amine-terminated UiO-66-NH₂ and the aldehyde-terminated ZIF-90, achieving conversion efficiencies up to 20 and 42%, respectively. Moreover, we demonstrate that it can also be used to postsynthetically cross-link the aldehyde groups of ZIF-90 using a diamine molecule with a conversion efficiency of 70%.

The stepwise optimisation of the room temperature, water-based synthesis of several porous CPO-27/MOF-74 materials allows fabricating them with BET surfaces areas up to 1603 m² g⁻¹ and space-time-yields as high as 18 720 kg m⁻³ per day.