Construction of Metal‐Organic Frameworks (MOFs)–Based Membranes and Their Ion Transport Applications

Abstract

Biological ion channels with delicate ion transport functions exist widely in living organisms. Bioinspired solid‐state channels have emerged as promising platforms to mimic the working mechanism of natural channels. These channels help in understanding the mechanism of ion transport in biosystems and pave the way for applications in several interesting areas. Metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs), constructed by connecting metal ions and organic ligands, exhibit high porosity and unique pore structures. They also possess tunable pore sizes and are versatile in their compositions. And there are rich molecule/ion‐specific functional groups in the frameworks, which can intelligently modulate ion transport. Thus, MOFs are promising candidates that mimic biological ion channels. Herein, the recent progress in the design and construction of artificial solid‐state MOF‐based channels is focused on. The excellent ion transport properties of MOF‐based membranes are also summarized, including ionic selectivity, ionic rectification, and ionic gating. Following this, four emerging ion transport applications, namely, energy conversion, ion/molecule separation, biosensing, and water desalination, are highlighted. Finally, an outlook on future developments and challenges in this exciting research area is presented.

Mo2N–W2N Heterostructures Embedded in Spherical Carbon Superstructure as Highly Efficient Polysulfide Electrocatalysts for Stable Room‐Temperature Na–S Batteries

“…[23] Construction of carbon/S composites as the cathode can improve the electrical conductivity and alleviate the shuttle effect, leading to enhanced electrochemical performance. A variety of carbons host (such as hollow carbon balls, [24] carbon nanotubes, [25] and metal-organic-framework-derived carbon [26,27] ) have been reported to suppress NaPS shuttling through physical confinement. However, nonpolar carbon host can offer weak affinity between the polar NaPS and Room-temperature sodium-sulfur (RT Na-S) batteries are highly desirable for a sustainable large-scale energy-storage system due to their high energy density and low cost.…”

Sandwich “Ion Pool”-Structured Power Gating for Salinity Gradient Generation Devices

“…Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), an emerging family of porous three-dimensional (3D) crystalline materials, are formed by connecting metal ions and organic linkers. They feature ultrahigh porosity, well-defined nanochannels, and enriched functional groups, making them promising 3D materials as ion-selective membranes. − Tungsten oxide (WO 3 ) possesses outstanding mechanical properties, abundant surface groups, and regular shapes and sizes. Moreover, the surface charge of tungsten oxide can be conveniently adjusted, which is a promising material as a cationic-selective membrane.…”

Light‐Controlled Ionic/Molecular Transport through Solid‐State Nanopores and Nanochannels

“…In recent years, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent-organic frameworks (COFs) with regular pore structure and high porosity have attracted tremendous attentions and been considered excellent candidates to build the nanofluidic platform. [104,105] The tunable pore size of the frameworks ranges from sub-nanometer to nanometer scale and the composition is versatile with unique functional groups, which is unparalleled by any other artificial porous nanofluidic devices. Recently, our group fabricated metal-organic frameworks membrane (MOFM) by using in situ growth method with metal ions from the PAA substrate and porphyrin as the organic linker.…”