The storage and separation of oxygen gas is of particular importance for applications such as space travel, self-contained breathing devices, and rebreather systems. However, sorbent-sorbate interactions with oxygen are typically fairly weak due to the non-polar nature of the diatomic gas. This leads to van der Waals forces dictating the sorption of oxygen, which makes highly charged sorption sites or those with strong dipoles necessary. MOFs are of particular interest for the selective uptake of gases, due to the tailorability of the metal and organic functional groups on the linkers, while maintaining a high surface area and porosity. In much of the previous oxygen uptake work, the metal of the MOF was shown to have a profound effect on the uptake; however, we examine here the effect the organic functional group can have on the uptake of oxygen through empirical and theoretical studies, using the UiO series of MOFs. We also examine the effect immobilization of the MOF particles in a polymer matrix can have on the oxygen uptake. While for most polymer matrices the uptake of oxygen scaled well with the MOF content, we have observed greater than an order of magnitude enhancement in oxygen uptake under certain processing conditions.

Enhancing the uptake of oxygen in metal-organic frameworks

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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