Synthesis, Characterisation and Property of Metal-Organic Framework/Graphene Oxide Composites

Abstract

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and graphene oxide (GO) are two kinds of materials capturing plenty of attention and research enthusiasm because of their unique structures and extraordinary properties. This work aims to design and build a new series of composites based on MOFs and GO, to integrate the merits of these two functional materials and to expand their implementation in a broad range of areas. A series of MFM-300s were successfully prepared following the matured method developed by Prof. Martin Schroder and Dr Sihai Yang's group. Considering the mild synthesis conditions and solid understanding of MFM-300(In), the composite MFM-300(In)@GO was selected as the start of the investigations. The composites with different MFM-300(In)/GO ratio were successfully prepared. After being characterised by Raman spectroscopy, PXRD, TGA, element analysis and SEM and TEM imaging, the composites were proven to maintain the crystalline structure of MFM-300(In) and the GO sheet structure. Although there is so far no suitable method to directly determine and identify the fine bonding situation between two parental materials in the composite, the comparison to the mixtures of MFM-300(In) and GO powders provided convincing evidence indicating that chemical bonds were built during the formation of the composite MFM-300(In)@GOs. Besides, the stability of MFM-300s under electron beams was tested. Moreover, the composites have been proven with decent sorption property like MFM-300(In). Using the composites as filler remarkably increased the CO2/CH4 selectivity of the mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) based on Matrimid®. The value of membrane MFM-300(In)@GO-4#4 reached 63.22, which is higher than any other reported MOF/Matrimid® MMMs systems. The composites were also used in enhancing proton conductivity. The proton conductivity of the composites is 102 ~ 103 times higher than the bare MFM-300(In). However, the composites did not present superiority in Xylene isomers separation.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Martin Schröder (Supervisor) & Sihai Yang (Supervisor)