start-up companies working towards the deployment of MOFs

2021-03-31

author: Cory Simon

metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are (often) crystalline materials that possess nanometer-sized cavities and exhibit large internal surface areas ($>$7000 m$^2$/g) decorable with functional groups. this endows MOFs with the ability to [selectively] adsorb molecules into their pores/ on their internal surfaces. MOFs have many applications; prominent ones are storing, separating, and sensing gases.

MOFs are synthesized modularly from molecular building blocks: organic linker molecules and inorganic nodes. owing to the (i) abundance of compatible molecular building blocks, (ii) many topologies in which the building blocks assemble, and (iii) post-synthetic modifiability, the number of possible MOF structures is practically limitless. thus, we can search for MOF structures with the right pore size, shape, and internal surface chemistry for each particular application.