Unlocking the Potential of MOFs as Membranes using Coupled Modeling and Experiments

这项由化学和生物分离计划颁发的NSF奖支持推动金属-有机骨架材料作为膜的活性成分用于大规模化学分离的工作。膜可以在高能效的化学分离中发挥巨大的作用，但传统的聚合物膜在选择性和吞吐量之间存在权衡。这一提议的前提是金属有机骨架(MOF)作为大规模分离膜具有巨大的前景，因为它们具有合理设计微孔大小、形状和功能的潜力。目前对MOF作为膜的性能几乎一无所知。同样重要的是，对于数千种MOF材料中的哪一种将被用于薄膜制造几乎一无所知。然而，我们的初步模拟工作和其他人的实验已经证明，MOF可以被制成膜，并且这些膜的性能可以在实际操作条件下进行预测。该领域将快速增长，我们的协作团队处于有利地位，能够引领这一领域。这项拟议的工作将结合计算建模和实验研究来开发基于MOF的新型膜。该项目将为教育和培训创造许多值得注意的机会。这些研究工作将与佐治亚州格温内特县正在开发的一项创新高中课程相联系。这种高度跨学科的方法将为各种学生创造学习机会：佐治亚理工学院K-12级、本科生和博士生，包括通过Sure计划招收的代表不足群体的外部本科生。

0966582SchollThis NSF award by the Chemical and Biological Separations Program supports work to advance the use of metal-organic framework materials as the active components in membranes for large-scale chemical separations. Membranes can play an enormous role in energy-efficient chemical separations, but traditional polymeric membranes suffer from a trade-off between selectivity and throughput. The premise of this proposal is that metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have enormous promise as membranes for large-scale separations because of their potential for rational design of micropore size, shape, and functionality. Almost nothing is currently known about the performance of MOFs as membranes. Equally importantly, almost nothing is known regarding which of the thousands of MOF materials would be productive to pursue for membrane fabrication. Preliminary modeling work by us and experiments by others have demonstrated, however, that MOFs can be fabricated into membranes and that the performance of these membranes can be predicted under practical operating conditions. This field is poised for rapid growth, and our collaborative team is well positioned to lead this area. The proposed work will use a combination of computational modeling and experimental studies to develop new membranes based on MOFs.This project will create many noteworthy opportunities for education and training. The research efforts will be linked with an innovative high school curriculum being developed in Gwinnett County, GA. The highly interdisciplinary approach will create learning opportunities for a variety of students: K-12, undergraduate, and PhD-level at Georgia Tech, including external undergraduates from underrepresented groups recruited through the SURE program.