Scalable Microdroplet-based Nanomanufacturing of Metal Organic Frameworks

多孔材料，如活性碳和沸石，具有重要的科学和技术价值，已广泛应用于气体捕集分离、催化和储氢等高影响应用领域。随着新型多孔材料的发展，这些技术将得到进一步的发展。一种新的多孔材料是金属有机骨架，也被称为MOF。金属有机骨架是具有高比表面积、可调孔隙率和丰富功能的多孔性聚合物晶体。尽管在金属有机骨架的合成和应用方面取得了很大进展，但还缺乏快速、可控和可扩展的纳米制造技术来生产这些材料。这项研究将促进知识的发展，支持创造一种新的纳米制造工艺，用于可扩展的制造和探索基于新型金属有机骨架的纳米材料，研究连续的气溶胶辅助微滴过程。这项研究将发展纳米制造、工艺开发、纳米结构设计和数学建模方面的知识和技能，以激励和教育各级学生，特别是少数族裔、妇女和代表性不足的群体。该项目将通过开发纳米制造和金属有机框架方面的新课程，提供新的研究机会，并组织科学营来培养下一代科学家和工程师。这项研究的主要目标是研究和开发一种基于微滴的纳米制造过程，包括一个具有集成在线表征平台的压力和温度可控的气溶胶反应器，用于制造金属有机框架或MOF。该项目解决了困扰传统湿化学方法的合成持续时间长、晶体成核和生长缓慢、加热不均匀和混合不均匀等基本问题。通过宏观和微观输运现象的实验研究和数值模拟相结合，揭示了金属有机骨架纳米材料在微滴中的形成和自组装机理。这项研究将基于金属有机骨架的纳米材料的制备从基于大块溶液的方法转变为基于微滴的方法。该项目为制造这种具有可控纳米结构的重要纳米材料提供了一个快速、连续和可扩展的平台，并为定量理解它们的形成路径提供了新的见解。大量提供负担得起的MOF应有助于应对各种能源和环境挑战，如能源、空气质量控制和水处理。

Porous materials, such as activated carbon and zeolites, are of scientific and technological interest and have been used in a wide range of high impact applications such as gas capture and separation, catalysis, and hydrogen storage. These technologies can be further advanced by the development of novel porous materials. A new class of porous materials is metal organic frameworks, also called MOFs. Metal organic frameworks are porous polymer crystals with high surface area, tunable porosity, and rich functionality. Despite great progress in both the synthesis and applications of metal organic frameworks, nanomanufacturing technology to produce these materials in a rapid, controllable, and scalable manner is lacking. This research will advance knowledge in support of creation of a novel nanomanufacturing process for scalable fabrication and exploration of novel metal organic frameworks-based nanomaterials, investigating a continuous aerosol-assisted microdroplet process. The research will develop knowledge and skills in nanomanufacturing, process development, nanostructure design, and mathematical modeling to stimulate and educate students at all levels, in particular, minorities, women, and underrepresented groups. The project will foster the next generation of scientists and engineers through development of new courses in nanomanufacturing and metal organic frameworks, offering new research opportunities, and organizing science camps.The primary objective of this research is to investigate and develop a microdroplet-based nanomanufacturing process, consisting of a pressure and temperature-controllable aerosol reactor with an integrated online characterization platform, for the fabrication of metal organic frameworks or MOFs. The project addresses the fundamental issues of long synthesis duration, slow crystal nucleation and growth, non-uniform heating, and inhomogeneous mixing that plague conventional wet-chemistry methods. By combining experimental investigations with numerical simulations on transport phenomena at both the macroscopic and microscopic scales, the detailed formation and self-assembly mechanisms of metal organic frameworks-based nanomaterials in microdroplets are unraveled. This research transforms the fabrication of metal organic frameworks-based nanomaterials from bulk solution-based methods to a microdroplet-based approach. The project provides a rapid, continuous and scalable platform for manufacturing such important nanomaterials with controllable nanostructures, and offers new insights into the quantitative understanding of pathways for their formation. The availability of affordable MOFs in large quantities should help tackle a variety of energy and environmental challenges, such as energy sources, air quality control, and water treatment.