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Preparation, characterization, and property of metal-organic-framework aerogels and aerogel-like monoliths for environment pollutant removal

  • Zhang LIU

Student thesis: Doctoral thesis

Abstract

Metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs) with large specific surface area, tunable pore size, versatile structures, functionality, and relative thermal and chemical stability, have applications in a wide range of topics from adsorption, catalysis, environment and medicine, and electronic devices.

The metal gel to MOFs conversion strategy, initially developed from ZIF-8 and MOF-5 aerogels synthesis in this study, has been extended to other tens of MOF aerogels synthesis with discussion of correlation between detailed conversion parameters and resulted properties. The as-prepared MOF aerogels possess high specific surface area, crosslinking networks, and mesoporous channel allowing improved mass diffusion and transportation. A mechanism for this methodology has been revealed based on a series of MOF aerogel exploration, and also found to be facile for fabricating magnetic Fe3O4-ZIF-8 recyclable mesoporous adsorbents for efficient removal of methylene blue and diclofenac from aqueous media, and it was two times higher than that of activated carbon in terms of adsorption capacity. The small sized magnetic colloids has also been successfully incorporated into ZIF-8 crystals, which allowed high loading of ferulic acid (556 mg/g) and slow release rate (62% in 4 days) at blood circulation pH and fast release at acidic conditions, exhibiting the great potential as a targeted drug carrier.

Additionally, the solutions for utilizing MOFs in presence of moisture and more server mechanical circumstance have been built, two individual routes for preparing highly compressible and hydrophobic porous aerogel-like MOF monoliths were well investigated firstly to the best of our knowledge and showed the satisfactory results upon utilization in gaseous and liquid components removal. The work may open scientific and industrial prospects for MOFs in practical applications.

Date of Award2017
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

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