Development and commercialisation of a flexible manufacturing process to produce monolithic metal-organic framework (MOF) materials.

金属有机骨架（mof）是一种令人兴奋的多孔材料，与沸石、活性炭和传统催化剂等竞争材料相比，它具有更高的通用性和性能。由于具有较大的内表面积作为分子吸附的场所，mof具有任何已知材料中最高的储气能力。在给定的压力下，装满MOF的油箱比空油箱能储存更多的气体。mof具有定制结构的独特能力，具有特定的特性，这意味着mof可以应用于各种行业，从气体储存和分离到催化和药物输送。其工业应用的一个主要挑战是合成后粉末材料的形状和密度，而不会降低性能。Immaterial Labs有限公司设计和制造单片mof，一步合成成型和致密材料，同时保持性能和提供世界领先的吸附能力。Immaterial公司利用他们的球团化技术制造了一种材料，打破了天然气体积存储的所有记录，比最接近的竞争对手提高了50%。这个Innovate UK项目研究单片mof的工业规模生产及其后续用例，旨在：1)设计和建造一个能够为5种不同的单片mof提供100公斤/天吞吐量的灵活制造设施，2)与主要合作伙伴一起完成特定应用的测试，以开发TRL6-9和MRL6-9的材料，以及3)吸引新客户参与设计新的单片mof用于其他用例。

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are an exciting class of porous materials, with added versatility and performance over competing materials such as zeolites, activated carbons, and traditional catalysts. With large internal surface areas acting as sites for molecules to adsorb to, MOFs possess some of the highest gas storage capacities of any known material. At a given pressure, a tank filled with a MOF can store much more gas than an empty tank. The unique ability to tailor their structure to have specific characteristics means MOFs have applications across a diverse set of industries, from gas storage and separation, to catalysis and drug delivery. A major challenge for their industrial use is to shape and densify the powdered materials post-synthesis, without getting a drop in performance.Immaterial Labs Ltd design and manufacture monolithic MOFs in a one-step synthesis which shapes and densifies the materials whilst maintaining performance and delivering world-leading adsorption capacities. Immaterial have applied their enabling pelletisation technology to make a material that has broken all records for the volumetric storage of natural gas, offering a 50% improvement over the closest competitor. This Innovate UK project studies the industrial-scale production of monolithic MOFs, and their subsequent use-cases, aiming to: 1) design and build a flexible manufacturing facility capable of a 100kg/day throughput for 5 different monolithic MOFs, 2) complete application specific testing with key partners to develop materials to TRL6-9 and MRL6-9, and 3) engage new customers in the design of novel monolithic MOFs for additional use-cases.