Against the backdrop of the greenhouse effect exacerbated by the escalating global concentration of greenhouse gases, coupled with the urgent demand for carbon capture technologies driven by China’s “carbon neutrality” strategy, this paper centers on the application of metal-organic framework (MOF)-based mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) in CO2 capture. It systematically reviews the prevalent bottlenecks constraining membrane technology, including inadequate stability, interfacial defects, challenges in large-scale fabrication, and agglomeration issues under high-loading conditions. This paper takes the CH4/N2 separation system as a technical prototype to extract common technical methods that can be borrowed, which specifically include four aspects: First, MOF is modified by high vacuum resistance calcination to build a carbon layer on the surface of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) to enhance its acid stability, and at the same time, to amorphize university of oslo framework-66 (UiO-66) to expose its unsaturated metal sites and enhance the affinity for the target gas. Second, the “dual-site synergy” interface design is achieved by matching the surface functionalization of MOF with the functional groups of the polymer to eliminate interface gaps and improve selectivity. Third, the hydrophilic modification of the support and the coating process are optimized, and mesoporous structures are introduced to achieve a MOF loading of over 95.000 wt%, effectively suppressing the agglomeration phenomenon. Fourth, based on large-area membranes, a roll-type membrane module is successfully developed to achieve a controllable performance transformation from membrane sheets to modules. This research provides a practical technical path for MOF-based mixed matrix membranes from material design to component integration, and has significant reference value for promoting the research on membrane-based CO2 capture.
References
[1] Hanson, E., Nwakile, C., Hammed, V. O. (2025) Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies: Evaluating the effectiveness of advanced CCUS solutions for reducing CO2 emissions. Results in Surfaces and Interfaces, 18, 100381.
[2] Zhang, X., Li, Y., Ma, Q., Liu, L. (2022) Development of carbon capture, utilization and storage technology in China. Strategic Study of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 23(6), 70.
[3] Zhang, X., Rong, M., Qin, P., Tan, T. (2022) PEO-based CO2-philic mixed matrix membranes compromising N-rich ultramicroporous polyaminals for superior CO2 capture. Journal of Membrane Science, 644, 120111.
[4] Yadav, A. K., Kenny, M. S., Musa, E. N., Walz, T. J., Gładysiak, A., Stylianou, K. C. (2025) Hydrolytic stability of metal-organic frameworks: an experimental study. Chemistry of Materials, 37(24), 9965-9984.
[5] Liu, Q., Chi, H. Y., Song, S., Goswami, R., Agrawal, K. V. (2023) Towards ultrathin metal-organic frameworks membranes for high-performance separation. APL Materials, 11(10), 100602.
[6] Ganesan, A., Purdy, S. C., Yu, Z., Bhattacharyya, S., Page, K., Sholl, D. S., Nair, S. (2021) Controlled demolition and reconstruction of imidazolate and carboxylate metal-organic frameworks by acid gas exposure and linker treatment. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 60(43), 15582-15592.
[7] Gu, Z., Yang, Z., Sun, Y., Qiao, Z., Zhong, C. (2022) Large‐area vacuum‐treated ZIF-8 mixed‐matrix membrane for highly efficient methane/nitrogen separation. AIChE Journal, 68(9), e17749.
[8] Yu, Z., Gu, Z., Lei, J., Zheng, G. (2023) Vacuum treated amorphous MOF mixed matrix membrane for methane/nitrogen separation. Journal of Solid State Chemistry, 320, 123852.
[9] Wu, W. N., Mizrahi Rodriguez, K., Roy, N., Teesdale, J. J., Han, G., Liu, A., Smith, Z. P. (2023) Engineering the polymer-MOF interface in microporous composites to address complex mixture separations. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 15(45), 52893-52907.
[10] Yu, S., Li, C., Zhao, S., Chai, M., Hou, J., Lin, R. (2024) Recent advances in the interfacial engineering of MOF-based mixed matrix membranes for gas separation. Nanoscale, 16(16), 7716-7733.
[11] Kan, M. Y., Lyu, Q., Chu, Y. H., Hsu, C. C., Lu, K. L., Lin, L. C., Kang, D. Y. (2021) Suppressing defect formation in metal-organic framework membranes via plasma-assisted synthesis for gas separations. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 13(35), 41904-41915.
[12] Dai, D., Wang, H., Li, C., Qin, X., Li, T. (2021) A physical entangling strategy for simultaneous interior and exterior modification of metal-organic framework with polymers. Angewandte Chemie, 133(13), 7465-7472.
[13] Chen, K. K., Salim, W., Han, Y., Wu, D., Ho, W. W. (2020) Fabrication and scale-up of multi-leaf spiral-wound membrane modules for CO2 capture from flue gas. Journal of Membrane Science, 595, 117504.
Share and Cite
Wang, F., Gu, Y., Zhang, X., Hu, H. (2025) Research on Common Technical Methods Based on Metal-organic Framework Membranes. Scientific Research Bulletin, 2(6), 96-104. https://doi.org/10.71052/srb2024/TWEL9907