Sun Chao, Pham Sang T, Boyall Sarah L, Douglas Ben, Britton Andrew J, Micklethwaite Stuart, Chamberlain Thomas W, Besenhard Maximilian O, Drummond-Brydson Rik, Wu Ke-Jun, Collins Sean M
School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
Commun Chem. 2025 May 16;8(1):154. doi: 10.1038/s42004-025-01548-5.
The boom in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for applications from chemical separations and gas storage to membranes for energy conversion and storage has stimulated interest in scalable MOF production methods. Combining the increased heat and mass transfer of flow reactors with the enhanced mixing and nucleation rates of sono-chemical synthesis, we developed an ultrasound-assisted two-phase flow platform for the aqueous synthesis of MOFs spanning three ligand chemistries, sulfonate Ca-NDS (water), imidazolate ZIF-8, and carboxylate UiO-66-NH. We show that this reactor does not foul, facilitating continuous operation at an STY of 3.4 × 10 (±1 × 10) kg m day of proton-conducting Ca-NDS (water). ZIF-8 and UiO-66-NH MOFs prepared in ultrasound-assisted flow with smaller, uniform particle sizes exhibited matched or superior gas sorption to those made in batch. These results highlight the potential of ultrasound-assisted flow synthesis for MOFs, offering enhanced nucleation alongside process intensification, and paving the way for more efficient MOF production.
金属有机框架材料（MOFs）在从化学分离、气体存储到能量转换与存储的膜等诸多应用领域的蓬勃发展，激发了人们对可扩展MOF生产方法的兴趣。我们将流动反应器中增强的传热传质与声化学合成中提高的混合和成核速率相结合，开发了一种超声辅助两相流平台，用于水相合成涵盖三种配体化学结构的MOFs，即磺酸盐Ca-NDS（水）、咪唑盐ZIF-8和羧酸盐UiO-66-NH。我们表明，该反应器不会结垢，有助于在质子传导性Ca-NDS（水）的时空产率为3.4×10（±1×10）kg m⁻² day⁻¹的条件下连续运行。在超声辅助流动中制备的具有更小、均匀粒径的ZIF-8和UiO-66-NH MOFs，其气体吸附性能与分批制备的材料相当或更优。这些结果突出了超声辅助流动合成MOFs的潜力，在强化过程的同时提供了增强的成核作用，为更高效的MOF生产铺平了道路。
