Scalable Microdroplet-based Nanomanufacturing of Metal Organic Frameworks

多孔材料，例如活性炭和沸石，具有科学和技术意义，并且已经用于广泛的高冲击应用，例如气体捕获和分离、催化和储氢。这些技术可以通过开发新型多孔材料来进一步推进。一类新的多孔材料是金属有机框架，也称为MOF。金属有机骨架是一种具有高比表面积、可调孔隙率和丰富功能性的多孔聚合物晶体。尽管在金属有机框架的合成和应用方面都取得了很大进展，但缺乏以快速，可控和可扩展的方式生产这些材料的纳米制造技术。这项研究将推进知识，以支持创建一种新型纳米制造工艺，用于可扩展的制造和探索新型金属有机框架基纳米材料，研究连续的气溶胶辅助微滴过程。该研究将开发纳米制造，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，特别是少数民族，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的新课程，提供新的研究机会，并组织科学营，培养下一代科学家和工程师。本研究的主要目标是研究和开发基于微滴的纳米制造过程，包括压力和温度可控的气溶胶反应器与集成的在线表征平台，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。通过对宏观和微观尺度下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液滴中形成和自组装的详细机制.这项研究将金属有机框架基纳米材料的制备从基于本体溶液的方法转变为基于微滴的方法。该项目为制造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，并为定量理解其形成途径提供了新的见解。大量可负担得起的MOFs的可用性应有助于解决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.