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

金属-有机框架（MOF）是一类由无机簇和刚性有机连接体构建的材料，以形成开放的三维框架，其具有独特的孔几何形状和用于新型材料工程的功能。 MOF的使用为电解质提供了安全的替代品，减轻了电解质的降解，并使得能够使用传统上受限于与液体电解质反应的高能电极材料，例如硫、金属氟化物和锂。 它们还能够通过形状分离烷烃异构体，这可用于汽油升级，并通过使炼油厂能够以溢价出售高辛烷值汽油或将其混入更便宜的汽油以降低生产成本来提高炼油厂的利润率。这个I-Corps团队开发了一类导电金属有机框架（MOFs），由无机簇和刚性有机连接体构建的三维结构，显示出高离子电导率和电子迁移率，以及对烷烃异构体分离的非凡选择性。这些特性使其适用于电池和汽油升级。与传统的多孔材料如沸石和活性炭相比，MOFs具有多种多样的孔结构和化学性质，可以通过明智地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，以最大限度地提高分离的电导率或选择性。在化学还原时，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的容量可以急剧增加到大于锂离子电池中使用的材料的值。因此，化学改性可用于增强M0 F的导电性，使得它们可应用于特定的电池应用。同时，与沸石Fe 2（BDP）3的钝角孔角相比，吡唑基MOF具有锐角孔。这使得能够基于分子的形状来选择分子，这为用于分离的直链、二支链和单支链烷烃异构体提供了不同的吸附能力。结果，可以以显著提高的效率进行目前低效进行的分离，例如将二支化己烷异构体与单支化和线性异构体分离。

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.