Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks are a promising group of microporous metal-organic framework membrane materials for gas and liquid separation. However, in spite of a large number of zeolitic imidazolate framework materials, only a few of these materials have been made into membranes. These membranes still do not offer the desired pore size for separation of some industrially important gas mixtures, such as ethylene and ethane. This project will investigate synthesis of metal-organic framework membranes with gated-micropores of tailorable pore size by a new membrane surface modification method for separation of industrially important gas mixtures.
Research will be conducted in this project to understand the post-synthesis modification of microporous metal-organic framework membranes by the membrane surface modification method, and to synthesize and characterize the modified metal-organic framework membranes for separations of small gas mixtures including that of ethylene/ethane. These studies will demonstrate a new membrane structure for gas separation and establish the foundation for the new post-synthesis modification method for synthesis of other microporous metal-organic framework membranes for separation of gas and liquid mixtures. Successful synthesis of these microporous membranes will represent an important advance in membrane science because this will lead to the development of many other high performance membranes for separation of gas and liquid mixtures of a close molecular size. The project will also educate and train graduate, undergraduate and high school students, in particular, female and minority students, to become leaders in membrane science and separation technologies.
