Metal-Organic Frameworks
MOFs
A new class of incredible materials – available at industrial scale
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were discovered in 1965 as waste material from other chemical processes. In the late 1990s, the first permanently porous MOF was discovered and the term “metal-organic framework” was coined. More than 90,000 MOFs have so far been created, with researchers and product developers drawn to their exciting chemical and structural properties, including uniform pore structures, tuneable porosity and flexibility in network topology, geometry, dimension and chemical functionality.
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Incredibly high surface areas
High thermal and chemical stabilities
In many applications, thermal cycling of the adsorbent is required to regenerate it once saturated. MOFs can be engineered to ex cel when repeatedly used in both heating and cooling cycles. Careful selection of the metal and ligands can allow high chemical robustness and thermal degradation points many times higher than any realistic regeneration temperature.
Tuneable selectivity
MOFs offer nearly infinite metal and ligand combinations, which allows extreme tuneability when compared to zeolites, activated carbons and similar high-surface-area materials.
Low energy of desorption
As solution-based systems, MOFs regenerate easily due to their low energy of desorption–that is, the energy required to release an adsorbed substance from their surface. MOFs can be engineered to tune the energy of desorption to desired ranges for both optimal affinity and selectivity of adsorbents.
Inherent recyclability
During repeated use, the MOF crystal structure may be damaged, but the metals and organic linkers that make up the lattice remain virtually intact. Dissolving the crystal can allow these “building blocks” to be recovered, so fresh MOFs can be generated using recycled precursors. MOFs can thus be a key part in solutions that advance a circular economy.
Metal Organic Frameworks
What are MOFs?
MOFs are organic-inorganic crystalline structures consisting of metal ions and organic linker molecules (ligands). They have extremely high porosity and surface area, up to 7,000 m2/g – or, put another way, the surface area of one gram of metal-organic framework would cover an entire football field!
The nearly limitless choice of metals and linkers allows incredible tuneability of pore shape and size. The cage- like structure contributes to the high surface area of MOFs, just one of their many advantageous properties. This structure can act like a sieve to selectively trap or adsorb certain chemical species.
We are seeing significant commercial interest in MOFs for gas storage and separation, purification, electrochemical energy storage and sensing. Our continuous hydrothermal synthesis route of manufacture lends itself well to the commercial production of MOFs, which have historically been very expensive. We also work with many research institutions on the development of new MOFs, as well as the translation of batch to continuous manufacturing methods.
MOF structures demonstrated in continuous flow
Other MOFs not described here are also available. Please contact us to discuss an specific requirements you may have.
HKUST-1 (Cu-BTC)
- High affinity for polar guest species (e.g., CO2) in gas streams of minimal water content
MIL-53 (Al)
- Very robust MOF that tolerates a wide range of temperatures and conditions
- Can be tuned via linker functionalisation to alter its selectivity
Aluminium Fumarate
- Relatively low-cost MOF material
- Applications: water capture/heat transfer
ZIF-8
- A highly stable material
- Applications: capture of hydrophobic guest species and hydrocarbon separations (e.g., alkane/alkene separations)
ZIF-67
- Similar structure to ZIF-8, with slightly different selectivity due to the different metal centre used
CPO-27 (Ni) / MOF-74 (Ni)
- Similar applications to HKUST-1, but tolerates water much better
- Excellent cycle-to-cycle stability in CO2 capture applications
CPO-27 (Zn) / MOF-74 (Zn)
- Similar applications to CPO-27 (Ni)
- Slightly lower CO2 capacity than CPO-27 (Ni), but with a lower cost and a higher selectivity for some other chemical species
MIL-100 (Fe)
- Useful for gas separation applications due to multiple pore sizes in its structure
- Can also be used for water capture, which is particularly interesting due to the low regeneration energy required
Fe-BTC
- “Amorphous” variant of MIL-100 (Fe)
- Lower surface area than MIL-100 (Fe), but with a higher density of defect sites, improving its ability to uptake some polar species
- Additional applications in catalysis
Temperature-swing Carbon Capture using
Metal-organic Frameworks
Temperature swing is just one method that can be used for solid sorbents systems. Independent beds of MOF are alternatively heated and cooled to establish the appropriate conditions for either capture or regeneration. Click the link to see a graphical illustration of how a temperature-swing adsorption process can employ MOFs for energy-efficient carbon capture.
Promethean and Captivate Annouce New MOF Scale-up Collaboration
MUF-16 was developed by Captivate, a spin-out from Massey University in New Zealand, and is an exciting new MOF structure that is extremely well suited for large-scale carbon capture and storage (“CCS”) projects.
MOFs for Carbon Capture and Storage
White Paper
Novel approaches to carbon capture are a necessity to tackle the accelerating negative impacts of man-made climate change. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a promising, cost-effective candidate to help solve this problem.
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