Microporous Organic Framework Materials for Membrane Separations

This chapter talks about the microporous organic framework materials for membrane separations. Microporous organic framework materials refer to hydrocarbons containing pores or voids at the microporous regime. Their backbones are composed of organic moieties connected by strong covalent bonds, usually resulted in ordered and rigid structures. The family members include polymers of intrinsic microporosity, covalent organic frameworks, conjugated microporous polymers, covalent triazine-based frameworks, hypercrosslinked polymers, porous cages, and porous aromatic frameworks. The chapter is intended to report research on newly emerged microporous organic framework membranes with defined porous structures. It covers gas separations of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, air, and other relevant gases, as well as water treatment. In the chemical or environmental industries, nanofiltration (NF) membranes are widely used for applications such as wastewater treatment and recovery of valuable organic molecules. NF membranes have pore sizes from 1 to 10 nm, and they are predominantly created from conventional polymer thin films.