The research team led by Prof. YANG Weishen in Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has attracted wide attentions on the study of metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes. And they were invited to publish a “progress report” which is entitled as “Microstructural Engineering and Architectural Design of Metal-Organic Framework Membranes” in Advanced Materials in June, 2017.
MOFs, which are a new class of molecular sieve materials, present the properties of permanent porosity and adjustability in both architecture and functionality.
Separation technology based on pure MOF membranes and mixed-phase MOF composite membranes has been successfully applied in gas separation and liquid refinery. Compared with traditional cryogenic distillation and chemical absorption process, MOFs have a higher efficiency and a lower energy consumption.
However, in order to reach an economically attractive region, it’s necessary to further improve the separation performance of MOF membranes, including permeability and selectivity.
Scientists from the research team led by Prof. YANG Weishen in DICP have been doing lots of work on MOFs and have attracted substantial attentions all over the world. In June, they were invited to publish a review on the topic of MOF membranes.
They reviewed the microstructural engineering of MOF membranes at mesoscopic levels, including orientation manipulation, static/dynamic interfacial synthesis, and mixed-phase reinforce. Moreover, they summarized the architectural design of MOF membranes at microscopic levels such as aperture size adjustment, cage modification and functional group post-decoration. Such modifications can be contributed to improve the performance of MOF membranes.
Last but not the least, they discussed the future opportunities of 2D ultrathin MOF membranes with precise molecular sieving properties and superb permeability.
Microstructural Engineering and Architectural Design of Metal–Organic Framework Membranes (Image by BAN Yujie)
This work is financially supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. (Text and Image by BAN Yujie)
Dr. WANG Yongjin
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, 116023, China,
Tel: 86-411-84374221
E-mail: wangyj@dicp.ac.cn