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Reactive Extrusion Printing of Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Films
Fatimah Al-Ghazzawi1,2, Luke Conte3, Michael W Potts3
1Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, AIIM Faculty, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
Abstract:
An outstanding challenge for the field of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is structuring to form forms with greater useability. Reactive extrusion printing (REP) is a technique for the direct formation of films from their molecular components on-demand and on-location. Here we apply REP for the first time to zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) and study the interplay of solvent and molarity ratio on the phase distribution between ZIF-8 and ZIF-L in reactive printed films. Our results show that REP controllably directs phase formation between ZIF-L and ZIF-8 and that REP also gives control over crystal size and that high-quality ZIF-8 films, in particular, are produced in low-dispersity interconnected nanoparticulate form. Importantly, we show that REP is responsive to established surface-functionalization techniques to control important printing parameters of line width and thickness. This work expands the repertoire of REP to the important class of ZIFs.
