MOFs: what are they and why are they exciting?

Metal Organic Frameworks or MOFs, as they are commonly known, are structures with metal clusters or nodes at their corners pulled together into a three-dimensional honeycomb material by organic links. Researchers around the world are working on ways to use MOFs for applications such as hydrogen storage, carbon sequestration, or photovoltaics.

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For them to be classed as MOFs or porous coordination polymers, these materials must have some of the highest surface areas you can get – thousands of square metres per gram. The result is a material that is highly porous, and it is these pores that give MOFs their sought after properties

One of the areas MOFs started to appear recently is biomedical applications. The unique physical and chemical characteristics of MOFs make them promising candidates for drug storage and drug delivery, nitric oxide storage and delivery, imaging, and sensing, body. shape/size selective catalysis and drug storage.

Because of the ability of expansion, they also enable MOFs to be employed in large scale applications such as carbon capture, gas storage and filtration, fuel storage for natural gas vehicles (NGVs), and heat transformations. All applications which will deliver huge benefits to the environment and the consumer. It actually has the highest internal surface area of any known substance on the planet; If unfolded, a single MOF could cover a football field. It’s also the most porous material known to man. These are qualities that could make MOFs the key to better hydrogen cars and carbon capture and storage technology in the future

One example of this is Strem Catalogue No.40‐1105 CAS Number 1072413-80-9  Zirconium1,‐dicarboxybenzene MOF (UiO ‐66)

This highly porous Zirconium 1,4‐dicarboxybenzene MOF (UiO‐66) has an exceptional thermal stability, which allows for temperatures up to 500°C

Due to their uniquely ordered structures, highly porous Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are preferable to Zeolites or similar oxide based materials

Other MOFs available from Strem Chemicals UK

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For further information, please contact us on 01223 873 028 or enquiries@strem.co.uk

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