| Jan 19, 2022 |
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(Nanowerk News) Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) bring tremendous opportunities for separation of liquid chemicals using membranes.
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However, due to the lack of highly compact and robust micro-architecture to cope with complicated and tough separation situations, MOF membranes available for liquid chemical upgrading through pervaporation are rare.
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Recently, a research group led by Prof. YANG Weishen and Dr. BAN Yujie from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) proposed hetero-lattice intergrown (HLI) and robust MOF membranes for polyol upgrading in industry.
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This study was published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (“Hetero-Lattice Intergrown and Robust MOF Membranes for Polyol Upgrading”).
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The researchers synthesized HLI membranes, with the integration of two distinct network MOFs, namely MIL-53 (Al) and amino-MIL-101 (Cr), at molecular scale.
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They demonstrated that the highly compact and robust micro-architecture was contributed to the complementary growth, concomitant with the strong connection between these two lattices.
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The HLI membrane with ultra-stability showed excellent pervaporation dehydration performances for C2-C4 polyol solutions. Furthermore, polymer-grade ethanediol (99.93%) through HLI membranes could be obtained, saving ca. 32% of energy consumption relative to the traditional vacuum distillation.
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“These results spotlight the potential of MOF membranes to create more solutions for current separation challenges,” said Prof. YANG.
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