I-Corps: The Commercialization Potential of Pyrazolate Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs)

金属有机骨架(MOF)是一类由无机团簇和刚性有机连接体组成的开放的三维骨架材料，具有独特的孔结构和功能，可用于新型材料工程。MOF的使用为电解液提供了安全的替代品，减缓了电解液的降解，并使高能电极材料的使用成为可能，如硫、金属氟化物和锂，这些材料传统上受到与液体电解液反应的限制。它们还可以按形状分离烷烃异构体，这可以应用于汽油升级，并通过使炼油厂能够要么溢价出售高辛烷值汽油，要么将其混合到更便宜的汽油中以降低生产成本，从而提高炼油厂的利润率。I-Corps团队开发了一类导电金属-有机骨架(MOF)，这是一种由无机簇合物和刚性有机连接物构建的三维结构，显示出高离子导电性和电子迁移率，以及对烷烃异构体分离的非凡选择性。这些特性使它们适合用于电池和汽油提质。与沸石和活性碳等传统的多孔材料相比，金属有机氟材料的孔结构和化学性质具有广泛的多样性，可以通过合理选择金属离子和配体来获得。它们可以通过合成后处理进一步定制，以最大限度地提高传导性或分离的选择性。在化学还原后，导电MOF的电子迁移率变得与非晶硅和有机导电聚合物相当。通过改变配体以获得基于配体的氧化还原对，MOF的容量可以大幅提高到比锂离子电池中使用的材料更高的值。因此，可以使用化学修饰来提高MOF的电导率，以便将其应用于特定的电池应用。同时，与分子筛Fe2(Bdp)3的钝孔角度不同，吡唑型MOF的孔道呈锐角状。这使得能够根据分子的形状来选择分子，从而为直链、双链和单支链烷烃异构体提供了不同的吸附热能以供分离。因此，目前进行的低效分离，例如从单支化和直线型异构体中分离双支化正己烷异构体，可以大大提高效率。

Metal-organic frameworks (MOF) are a class of materials built of inorganic clusters and rigid organic linkers to form open, three-dimensional frameworks that possess unique pore geometries and functionalities for novel material engineering. The use of MOFs provides safe alternatives for electrolytes, mitigate electrolyte degradation, and enable the use of high-energy electrode materials, such as sulfur, metal fluorides, and lithium that are traditionally limited by reaction with liquid electrolytes. They also enable the separation of alkane isomers by shape, which can be applied to gasoline upgrading, and enhance the margins of oil refineries by enabling them to either sell high octane gasoline for a premium or mix it into cheaper gasoline to reduce production costs. This I-Corps team has developed a class of conductive Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), three-dimensional structures built of inorganic clusters and rigid organic linkers that display high ionic conductivities and electron mobility, as well as extraordinary selectivity for separation of alkane isomers. These properties make them suitable for applications in batteries and gasoline upgrading. Compared to traditional porous materials such as zeolites and activated carbons, MOFs have the wide diversity of pore structures and chemical properties that can be obtained by the judicious selection of metal ions and ligands. They can be further tailored by post-synthetic treatments to maximize conductivity or selectivity for separations. Upon chemical reduction, the electron mobility of the conductive MOFs becomes comparable to amorphous silicon and organic conductive polymers. By altering the ligand to access ligand-based redox couples, the capacity of MOFs could be drastically increased to values greater than materials used in lithium ion batteries. Thus, chemical modification can be used to enhance the conductivities of MOFs so that they can be applied to specific battery applications. At the same time, in contrast with the obtuse pore angles of zeolites, Fe2(BDP)3, a pyrazolate MOF has acutely angled pores. This enables the selection of molecules based on their shape, which provide varied adsorption enthalpies for linear, di and mono-branched alkane isomers for separation. As a result, separations currently carried out inefficiently, such as separating di-branched hexane isomers from mono-branched and linear isomers, could be performed with a substantially increased efficiency.