Improved continuous synthesis of UiO-66 enabling outstanding production rates

Abstract

As the applicability of MOFs progresses, the demand for production of large quantities in a safe and reproducible manner is constantly growing. UiO-66 is considered to be one of the most stable MOFs and for this reason it is attractive for a wide range of applications. This work describes the upscaled continuous synthesis of UiO-66 and its derivatives by implementation of a simple milli-structured reactor. High quality material can be produced within 8 min of reaction under unprecedented reproducibility and Space time yields up to 7162 kg m⁻³ d⁻¹. The optimization of the reaction was carried out in a smaller reactor where the effects of concentration, crystallization agent (HCl) and temperature were studied and the best conditions were applied in a bigger reactor capable of delivering up to 200 g d⁻¹ in just 40 mL of reactor volume. Finally, UiO-66 derivatives were also synthesized while the reactor and process stability were tested through a number of long runs.