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

金属有机框架（MOFs）是一类令人兴奋的多孔材料，与竞争材料（如沸石，活性炭和传统催化剂）相比，具有更高的多功能性和性能。由于大的内表面积作为分子吸附的场所，MOFs拥有任何已知材料中最高的气体储存能力。在给定的压力下，充满MOF的罐可以比空罐储存更多的气体。MOFs具有独特的能力，可以定制其结构以具有特定的特性，这意味着MOFs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在合成后使粉末材料成型和致密化，而不降低性能。Immaterial Labs Ltd设计和制造单块MOFs，一步合成，成型和致密化材料，同时保持性能并提供世界领先的吸附能力。Imaterial应用了他们的造粒技术，制造了一种打破天然气体积储存所有记录的材料，比最接近的竞争对手提高了50%。该Innovate UK项目研究单片MOFs的工业规模生产及其后续用例，旨在：1）设计和建造一个灵活的生产设施，能够生产100公斤/天的5种不同的单片MOF，2）与关键合作伙伴一起完成特定应用测试，以开发符合TRL 6 -9和MRL 6 -9的材料，以及3）使新客户参与新颖的单片MOF的设计以用于额外的用例。

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.