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Project

Chemical vapor deposited metal-organic framework composite chemiresistors

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a new class of materials that consist of organic and inorganic building blocks. At the molecular scale, these materials are crystalline, which means highly ordered, and contain a large amount of nanoscale (1 millionth of a millimeter) voids, that are called pores. Because of their ordered nanoporosity, MOFs have demonstrated a great potential for applications involving uptake of small molecules in their pore interior, such as catalysis, molecular sieving and gas sensing. Manufacturing processes are important enabling technologies for implementation of these promising materials in industry. Gas sensing applications, for instance, need very thin MOF films to be deposited on microscopic electronic arrays. In this project we will advance the promising concept of chemical vapor deposition of MOFs (MOF-CVD) towards implementation as a scalable, robust and flexible process in a dedicated thin film deposition reactor. In-depth insight in the deposition parameters will be gained and used to enable new concepts such as chemical doping, pore size tuning and composite deposition. These new possibilities will be exploited in a new design of composite gas sensors, combining the affinity and selectivity of MOFs for volatile organics with the properties of conducting polymers. Potential applications are situated in breath analysis disease diagnostics, industrial safety and air quality monitoring.

Date:1 Oct 2016 →  31 Aug 2019
Keywords:metal-organic framework, composite chemiresistors, Chemical vapor deposited
Disciplines:Analytical chemistry, Macromolecular and materials chemistry