MOFs, all known as metal-organic framework materials, are a class of crystalline porous materials with periodic network structure, which can be applied in the fields of separation, catalysis and energy storage. Metal-organic framework separation membranes, referred to as MOF membranes, have excellent separation effect and low energy consumption, and have a broad application prospect.
According to the "2021-2025 MOF Membrane Industry Deep Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestion Report" released by Xinsiye Industrial Research Center, MOF membrane can be designed for the thickness of the membrane layer, membrane structure, porous structure, pore size, etc., in order to reduce the thickness of the membrane, reduce the resistance to penetration, improve the transport performance, optimize the selective permeability and other properties.MOF membrane can separate gases, liquids, ions, etc., of which. Gas separation is a popular research field, the use of MOF membrane can improve the air purification effect, in the air purifier, home air conditioning, automotive air conditioning, industrial gas separation and air purification and other fields have a broad market space.
China's MOF membrane technology research results continue to increase, including gas, liquid and ion separation fields.In 2017, a research team from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, successfully applied metal-organic skeleton compounds (MOFs) materials to air filtration, and the material's filtration rate of PM2.5 was 99.5% at room temperature, and the purification efficiency occurred only in a small amount of 200 ° C. The material was also used in air filtration. depreciation.
In 2019, a research team from Beijing Institute of Technology used ultra-high MOF-loaded membranes for high-efficiency wastewater purification, employing a thermotropic phase separation-hot pressing (TIPS-HoP) coupling strategy to achieve continuous roll-to-roll production of high-loaded, flexible MOF-based hybrid matrix membranes.
In 2020, a team from Tianjin Polytechnic University (TPU) and a team from Tianjin University (TU) collaborated to discover a new MOF membrane state, i.e., "low-crystalline MOF membranes" (LC-MOF membranes), which are rich in metal vacancies and very effective for olefin/alkane separation.
In 2021, the Inorganic Membrane and Catalytic New Materials Research Group at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics made new progress in the research of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) membrane separation, and utilized the in situ interfacial assembly strategy to construct a membrane-carrier interlocking composite microstructured MOF membrane with zero apparent thickness and a high degree of orientation to realize the H2/CO2 efficiently. Separation.
Industry analysts from Xinsiye said that China has made continuous breakthroughs in the field of MOFs technology research, but the strength of commercialization and application is still weak. Globally, MOFs commercialization application of outstanding enterprises are mainly Germany Bayer, the United States Strem reagent and so on. Compared with Germany, the United States and other countries, China's strength in the industrialization of MOFs research results is insufficient, and at this stage, the size of the MOFs industry and market size are small. The reason is mainly due to the high production cost of MOF membrane, weak competitiveness in the field of gas, liquid, ion separation and air purification.
However, Prof. Zhenjie Zhang of the School of Chemistry, Nankai University, has developed a melt green synthesis strategy, which realizes the gram-scale preparation of vinyl COFs with high crystallinity and stability without adding any solvent. As a green technology, melt green synthesis shows great potential in industrial practical synthesis process due to its unique advantages such as low cost, reduced use of hazardous chemicals, and simple process and handling. In addition to that, processing COFs into different shapes and being able to rationally handle the shapes and sizes so that they can be easily transported, stored, and used can greatly advance the industrial application of COFs. Most of the currently reported COFs exist in powder form after synthesis and activation, which hinders their further application in green chemistry. The new method of melt green synthesis makes it possible to manufacture cost-effective crystalline COFs in kilogram scale on a large scale, which successfully opens the door for the industrialization of scientific research results, and it has a wide range of applications in the fields of air purification, pharmaceuticals, and chromatographic fillers.
For China's residents of air quality concerns continue to improve, the actual situation of growing demand for air purifiers, making the number of companies entering the layout of the increasing number of enterprises, the size of these enterprises, technical strength of varying heights, product quality is uneven, with the introduction of the new national standards, more companies were eliminated out of the industry is moving towards standardization, branding direction of development, the technical content of the product continues to improve. From this point of view, with the air purifier update, COFs industrialized production will bring new light to this issue.