In-situ synthesis of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs)-PA12 powders and their laser sintering into hierarchical porous lattice structures
Binling Chen, Richard Davies, Hong Chang, Yongde Xia, Yanqiu Zhu, Oana Ghita
Abstract
This paper demonstrates the utilisation of in-situ synthesised novel metal organic framework (MOF)-polymer nanocomposite laser-sintered parts with enhanced CO 2 adsorption properties. Making use of polyamide PA12, one of the most common materials in powder bed fusion process as the base polymer , an in-situ synthesis of nanofiller ZIF-67 crystals on the surface of polyamide polymer particles was proposed to allow the fabrication of a nanocomposite powder with a good dispersion , reducing any health and safety handling issue arising from use of loose nanoparticles . This in-situ synthesis method allowed a maximum exposure of the ZIF-67 nano-porous sites. Laser sintering was used to fabricate porous structures with additional macro-pores and controlled cavities to increase the surface area. The laser-sintered ZIF67-PA12 part at only 2.6% wt ZIF-67 concentration exhibited a CO 2 capacity of 3.02 and 4.89 cm 3 /g at 298 K and 273 K at 1 bar. This in-situ synthesis method of making ZIF67-PA12 powders combined with the design freedom and the ease of fabrication of parts opens opportunities in a wider range of applications for MOFs such as energy storage and conversion .