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

0966582 scholl这项由美国国家科学基金会化学和生物分离项目颁发的奖项，支持推进金属-有机框架材料作为大规模化学分离膜活性成分的使用。膜可以在节能化学分离中发挥巨大作用，但传统的聚合物膜在选择性和吞吐量之间存在权衡。该提案的前提是，金属有机框架（mof）由于其合理设计微孔大小、形状和功能的潜力，作为大规模分离膜具有巨大的前景。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材料中哪一种可以用于膜制造，几乎一无所知。然而，我们的初步建模工作和其他人的实验表明，mof可以制成膜，并且这些膜的性能可以在实际操作条件下预测。这一领域有望快速增长，我们的合作团队已经做好了引领这一领域的准备。提出的工作将使用计算建模和实验研究相结合的方法来开发基于mof的新膜。这个项目将创造许多值得注意的教育和培训机会。这项研究工作将与佐治亚州格威内特县正在开发的一项创新高中课程联系起来。这种高度跨学科的方法将为各种各样的学生创造学习机会：乔治亚理工学院的K-12、本科生和博士水平，包括通过SURE项目招募的来自代表性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.