Event
ChBE Seminar Series: Sankar Nair
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Room 2108, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building
Professor Dongxia Liu
(liud@umd.edu
Towards MOF Membrane Technology: Mixed-linker zeolitic imidazolate framework materials and scalable membrane processing
Sankar Nair
Professor and James F. Simmons Faculty Fellow
Georgia Tech
This talk will describe our recent progress in the synthesis and properties of ZIF-type nanoporous materials for molecular separation applications, and their subsequent use in the fabrication of molecular sieving membranes on polymeric hollow fibers. New separations technology is key to increased energy efficiency in the chemical sector, as well as the efficient production of clean and renewable fuels. It is hypothesized that ZIF materials may find successful applications in this area. We will first discuss approaches to finely control the pore structure and separation properties of ZIF materials via mixed-linker synthesis. We then discuss the processing and use of these MOF materials in the fabrication of membranes for gas and hydrocarbon separations. The transport properties of such membranes are discussed. We will discuss some key scientific and engineering questions whose resolution (via combined experimental and computational methods) may enable the successful application of ZIF membranes in industrial separation processes.
About the Speaker
Sankar Nair is Professor & J. F. Simmons Faculty Fellow, and Associate Chair for Industry Outreach, in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. His research interests are in the chemistry and engineering of nanoporous materials and thin films/membranes via innovative processing strategies, with applications in separations and catalysis. Prof. Nair has authored/co-authored about 100 journal publications on the above subjects and holds 11 US/PCT patents. He is an Executive Editor of Chemical Engineering Science. Recognitions of Prof. Nair’s work include the CAREER award (NSF, 2008), the Sigma Xi Outstanding Young Faculty Award (Georgia Tech, 2008), the FRI/John Kunesh Award (AIChE, 2012), and the Sigma Xi Outstanding Paper Award (Georgia Tech, 2015).
