American National Institute of Standards and Technology New research shows that 3D printed plastic, combined with a versatile material for detecting and storing gas, can be used to make low-cost sensors and fuel cells.
This versatile material is a metal-organic framework compound (MOF); these materials are simple and inexpensive to make, and some of these materials can also be used to capture a particular gas from the air From a microscopic point of view, these metal-organic frames look like buildings under construction - the spatial structure of a steel beam frame you would imagine - and one of the special qualities of MOFs is that it allows the fluid in its space And its beam will absorb a specific part of the liquid, and the rest of the liquid flow past to seize these specific parts. This material is a very potential candidate for refining and refining other hydrocarbons.
Metal-organic framework compounds have drawn the attention of scientists from NIST and US universities because This material can also lay the foundation for cost-effective sensing technology For example, some MOFs can be used to filter out greenhouse gases such as methane or carbon dioxide, however the problem is that the newly manufactured MOFs are tiny particles of roughly the same size as dust and you make them with materials that can even slip away from the finger It is very difficult to get a useful sensor.
To solve this problem, the team decided to try to mix MOFs with the plastics used in 3D printers, and not only did the synthetic plastic material be shaped into the shape the team wanted, but it was permeable enough for gas to pass through it, that is , MOFs can detect the specific gas molecules the team wants to detect, but will MOFs work after mixing?
In a paper on advanced polymer technology, researchers said the idea could be used not only for sensors but also for other applications. They demonstrated MOFs and plastics work well together ; For example, when this mixture melts, MOFs not only do not settle to the bottom of the plastic, but rather will be evenly distributed throughout the mixture.
NIST's sensor expert Zeeshan Ahmed said: "The automotive industry has been looking for a cheap, lightweight way to store fuel for hydrogen-powered vehicles and we hope this mix of MOFs and plastics will form the basis of a hydrogen-powered fuel tank."
The paper also showed that when both the solid mixture and the plastic are exposed to hydrogen at the same time, it is more than 50 times more potent than the hydrogen that the plastic itself retains, indicating that MOFs can work effectively even when mixed with plastics, all of which are Remarkable results, but still can not meet the fuel cell requirements.
Ahmed said his team is optimistic that this idea can be improved and is a reality, and they have conducted a preliminary study in a second forthcoming paper discussing the role of two other MOFs in absorbing nitrogen and Hydrogen and also shows how to reduce the impact of humidity degradation on this mixture of MOFs and plastics.The team is currently looking for opportunities to work with other NIST research groups to develop MOF-based sensors.
Zeeshan Ahmed, a scientist from NIST, said: 'Our goal is to find a storage method that stores 4.5% hydrogen, and now we have less than 1% storage, but from a material point of view we do not need it Achieve this goal and make significant improvements, so we see the glass or plastic can already be half full.