Research Projects

Metal Organic Frameworks (MOF) are porous coordination polymer compounds comprising metal nodes and organic liker linked together to form a crystalline 3-D structure, having a very high porosity and surface area ~700 m2/g. Owing to their very high surface area and easy functionalization they can be a promising candidate for heavy/noble metal adsorption. MOFs are being used to treat contaminated systems, but mostly MOFs are used as powders and have poor dispersion and hydrolytic stability. Therefore in this proposal, we aim to prepare for the first time a MOF platform that will not suffer from poor dispersion, will have better hydrostability and also have the regenerative capability. This novel MOF architecture will then be assembled in the form of cartridge sets using scrap metals which will have a high specificity towards heavy metal removal with a very high adsorption capacity and ~95% removal efficiency. In-situ growth of MOF films on self-sacrificial metal strips for heavy metal removal may result in highly efficient, cost-effective, energy-efficient technology for heavy/noble material removal and recovery. The prototype we are proposing as a deliverable in this project is based on regenerative MOFs and has never been reported. The prototype can be customized depending on the environmental burden of these heavy metals spanning across the country. The major dissemination outcome expected from this project is Patent submission, prototype development, product optimization, and scientific papers. The proposed treatment of treating contaminated water using MOFs will benefit the following stakeholders: A) Industrial areas (e.g. mining and ancillary units, dye industries, ceramic sectors) where heavy metal contamination can be a persistent problem. The proposed MOF-based treatment allows for treating the heavy metal contamination on site. B) Civic body: The proposed cartridge-based filtering system can easily be deployed at various community stations (e.g. overhead storage tanks, hand pumps, water reservoirs etc) to treat potable water Our group has extensive experience in the field of materials development and their environmental and biological applications. We also have all the required infrastructure in place to execute the projects and our research has already made good progress in treating lead removal with globally high standards. All the equipment and tools required to execute this project successfully are available with the PI.