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Within recent years, metal-organic frameworks, or MOF’s, have gained a lot of attention in the materials research community. These micro-porous materials are constructed of a metal oxide core and organic linkers, and have a wide-variety of applications due to their extensive material characteristic possibilities. The focus of this study is

Within recent years, metal-organic frameworks, or MOF’s, have gained a lot of attention in the materials research community. These micro-porous materials are constructed of a metal oxide core and organic linkers, and have a wide-variety of applications due to their extensive material characteristic possibilities. The focus of this study is the MOF-5 material, specifically its chemical stability in air. The MOF-5 material has a large pore size of 8 Å, and aperture sizes of 15 and 12 Å. The pore size, pore functionality, and physically stable structure makes MOF-5 a desirable material. MOF-5 holds applications in gas/liquid separation, catalysis, and gas storage. The main problem with the MOF-5 material, however, is its instability in atmospheric air. This inherent instability is due to the water in air binding to the zinc-oxide core, effectively changing the material and its structure. Because of this material weakness, the MOF-5 material is difficult to be utilized in industrial applications. Through the research efforts proposed by this study, the stability of the MOF-5 powder and membrane were studied. MOF-5 powder and a MOF-5 membrane were synthesized and characterized using XRD analysis. In an attempt to improve the stability of MOF-5 in air, methyl groups were added to the organic linker in order to hinder the interaction of water with the Zn4O core. This was done by replacing the terepthalic acid organic linker with 2,5-dimethyl terephthalic acid in the powder and membrane synthesis steps. The methyl-modified MOF-5 powder was found to be stable after several days of exposure to air while the MOF-5 powder exhibited significant crystalline change. The methyl-modified membrane was found to be unstable when synthesized using the same procedure as the MOF-5 membrane.
ContributorsAnderson, Anthony David (Author) / Lin, Jerry Y.S. (Thesis director) / Ibrahim, Amr (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
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Description
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a new set of porous materials comprised of metals or metal clusters bonded together in a coordination system by organic linkers. They are becoming popular for gas separations due to their abilities to be tailored toward specific applications. Zirconium MOFs in particular are known for their

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a new set of porous materials comprised of metals or metal clusters bonded together in a coordination system by organic linkers. They are becoming popular for gas separations due to their abilities to be tailored toward specific applications. Zirconium MOFs in particular are known for their high stability under standard temperature and pressure due to the strength of the Zirconium-Oxygen coordination bond. However, the acid modulator needed to ensure long range order of the product also prevents complete linker deprotonation. This leads to a powder product that cannot easily be incorporated into continuous MOF membranes. This study therefore implemented a new bi-phase synthesis technique with a deprotonating agent to achieve intergrowth in UiO-66 membranes. Crystal intergrowth will allow for effective gas separations and future permeation testing. During experimentation, successful intergrown UiO-66 membranes were synthesized and characterized. The degree of intergrowth and crystal orientations varied with changing deprotonating agent concentration, modulator concentration, and ligand:modulator ratios. Further studies will focus on achieving the same results on porous substrates.
ContributorsClose, Emily Charlotte (Author) / Mu, Bin (Thesis director) / Shan, Bohan (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
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Description
This paper begins with an introduction to the topics relevant to the research presented. Properties of diamond, diamond’s ability to be used in power electronics compared to other semiconducting materials, and a brief overview of field effect transistors are among the topics discussed. The remainder of the paper centers around

This paper begins with an introduction to the topics relevant to the research presented. Properties of diamond, diamond’s ability to be used in power electronics compared to other semiconducting materials, and a brief overview of field effect transistors are among the topics discussed. The remainder of the paper centers around research that has been conducted on seven diamond samples. Interface characterization was performed on two diamond samples, one with a high boron incorporation epitaxial layer and another with a low boron incorporation epitaxial layer. UPS He I analysis and UPS He II analysis were used to construct band alignments for the two samples, which revealed no significant differences between their measured properties. A Python program designed to optimize XPS loss peak and UPS He II graphical data analysis is also discussed in detail. Next, Hall effect measurements are examined. Hall effect measurements were carried out on seven diamond samples, two of which have high boron incorporation epitaxial layers, two of which have low boron incorporation epitaxial layers, one of which has a moderate boron incorporation epitaxial layer, and two of which have a phosphorus-doped epitaxial layer. Hall measurements of the boron-doped samples revealed no significant differences in measured parameters amongst the samples with varying boron incorporation epitaxial layers, with the exception of an expected difference in measured carrier concentration proportional to the amount of dopant incorporation in the layers. Some samples with boron-doped epitaxial layers produced measurements indicating n-type charge carriers, which is unexpected given the p-type charge carriers within these samples. The phosphorus-doped samples were unable to be measured due to overly high resistance following an oxygen termination step, and this effect was functionally reversed following hydrogen termination of the samples. It is hypothesized that Fermi pinning is responsible for this effect. The paper concludes with a summary of data discussed in previous sections and a suggested direction for future research on this topic.
ContributorsJacobs, Madeleine (Author) / Nemanich, Robert (Thesis director) / Botana, Antia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2022-05