Fatima Adhaim: ZIFs for Gas Separation

In this webinar, Dr. Edhaim will highlight the research conducted during her IBK fellowship, which focuses on the simple and straightforward method she helped develop to rapidly form ZIF-8 with branched architectures at ambient conditions in a short amount of time. The branched ZIFs can be added to a polyimide matrix and formed into stable and well-dispersed MOF networks to form MMMs. Unlike traditional ZIFs particles, which are roughly spherical, branch ZIFs form anisotropic percolation networks at low loadings without the need for alignment. Such morphological features present opportunities to study known and new MOFs with these unique structural features. In addition, these branched ZIFs have high external surface areas, which can favorably interact with polymers. These features enable the stabilization of the polymer structure while simultaneously inhibiting plasticization. Her research expanded the materials scope and characterization efforts into other MOFs that contain the same organic ligand.