Ask an Expert: Smoothing out the wrinkles in thin-film MOFs
If you enjoy coffee, you probably use a paper or metal filter as part of your morning routine. It’s an intuitive concept, even without putting it into science terms of porosity and particle size – water can make it through, but the bigger coffee grounds can’t. It’s also pretty intuitive that the filter will be wet afterwards. Some of the water (well, mostly water plus some delicious coffee!) will stay trapped in the filter’s pores until evaporation takes its course.
We interact with this process all the time without thinking much of it. But with a few added details, this idea is the foundation of the many groundbreaking applications for another type of porous material: metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
Porous powerhouses
MOFs are crystalline materials which comprise metal clusters and organic linkers. There are huge numbers of possible combinations to make up these structures, with over 90,000 having been synthesized already! But what they all have in common is their exceptionally high porosity and large surface area. This porosity is also ‘tunable’, meaning that it can be manipulated according to requirements – for example, to store specific molecules while rejecting others.
Material chemists have been getting very excited about all the potential applications of MOFs for some time, with some ideas, such as water capture in the desert, offering the potential to save lives and improve health for many people worldwide. But while all this research is very technical and innovative, some applications have proven especially tricky to bring into reality.
The delicate balance of thin films
These extra-tricky applications include catalysis, separation (for example, separating gases), use in sensors, and drug delivery – most of which call for MOF thin films or polymer-MOF hybrids. Synthesizing MOFs as thin films has been a challenge for a while because, in order to ensure the right properties, the crystals must form as intended. This means in the correct phase, with the correct orientation, adhering properly to the substrate – which certainly isn’t guaranteed!
If you’re familiar with X-ray analysis, you’ll know that this would be a great time to bring in X-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD is commonly used in many contexts to characterize crystalline properties including preferred orientation and phase – and this is exactly what Prince Verma did in his research that was shortlisted last year for the Malvern Panalytical Scientific Award!
You’re invited: ask a MOF expert!
Prince used the Empyrean XRD platform to help him in his work, which synthesized MOF thin films with strong adhesion and excellent orientation, and formed polymer-MOF organogels in-situ with potential in drug delivery applications. And he’ll be discussing this fascinating research at our upcoming Ask an Expert! webinar!
On September 21 at 16:30 CEST, Prince will guest-host the session to introduce the synthesis methods and innovative approach he and his colleagues used while working with tricky MOF thin films – managing to overcome some of their notorious challenges. He’ll also dive into the current knowledge gaps around polymer-MOF gels (a really key area, given the potential in drug delivery!) and discuss the formation mechanisms of these composites.
And of course, Prince will be answering all your questions too! If you’re already curious about his work or how he set up his research experiments, you can email your questions ahead of time to askanexpert@malvernpanalytical.com to make sure they get answered. But no pressure – there’ll be a chance to ask during the session as well.
Register for the webinar now (and don’t forget to add it to your calendar) – we’ll see you on September 21!
Click here to sign up for Prince’s Ask an Expert! session.
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