Harriet E. Manning, Robert Field, Rafiqul Gani, Adam Lee, Hyunjoo Lee, Jay H. Lee, Gongping Liu, Sang Yup Lee
{"title":"BMC Chemical Engineering: an open access publishing venue for the chemical engineering community","authors":"Harriet E. Manning, Robert Field, Rafiqul Gani, Adam Lee, Hyunjoo Lee, Jay H. Lee, Gongping Liu, Sang Yup Lee","doi":"10.1186/s42480-019-0001-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s42480-019-0001-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This editorial accompanies the launch of <i>BMC Chemical Engineering</i>, a new addition to the BMC Series. The journal follows the BMC Series ethos of being fully open access and making editorial decisions based on scientific validity and quality rather than perceived interest or impact. The scope of the journal is broad, considering fundamental and applied research in all areas of chemical engineering with the ultimate aim of providing an inclusive, community-focussed venue to ensure that the most relevant chemical engineering research is disseminated widely for all to read and build upon.</p>","PeriodicalId":495,"journal":{"name":"BMC Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.35,"publicationDate":"2019-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s42480-019-0001-0","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5142012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Incorporation of Cu3BTC2 nanocrystals to increase the permeability of polymeric membranes in O2/N2 separation","authors":"Chong Yang Chuah, Tae-Hyun Bae","doi":"10.1186/s42480-019-0002-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s42480-019-0002-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To increase permeability in O<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub> separation without compromising selectivity, Cu<sub>3</sub>BTC<sub>2</sub> (or HKUST-1) nanocrystals, which possess well-defined channels and high surface area, were used as the filler for mixed-matrix membrane fabrication. The Cu<sub>3</sub>BTC<sub>2</sub> nanocrystals, which were synthesized at room temperature with a facile method, showed desirable physical properties and porosity comparable to those of a commercial Cu<sub>3</sub>BTC<sub>2</sub> adsorbent (Basolite C300). High-quality mixed-matrix membranes without appreciable defects were successfully fabricated with both Matrimid and polysulfone, which are commercial membrane polymers that suffer from poor permeability. Gas permeation testing revealed that 20?wt% Cu<sub>3</sub>BTC<sub>2</sub> nanocrystals loading dramatically improved the O<sub>2</sub> permeability of both polymer membranes (106% for Matrimid and 379% for polysulfone), with modest increases in O<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub> selectivity. A detailed analysis of diffusivity and solubility showed that the overall O<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub> diffusion selectivity was improved substantially over that of a neat polymeric membrane with the incorporation of Cu<sub>3</sub>BTC<sub>2</sub> nanocrystals. A comparative study with literature data demonstrated that Cu<sub>3</sub>BTC<sub>2</sub> nanocrystals are far more effective than other metal-organic framework fillers tested to increase permeability in O<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub> separation.</p>","PeriodicalId":495,"journal":{"name":"BMC Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.35,"publicationDate":"2019-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s42480-019-0002-z","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5142011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Noble gas separation by a MOF with one-dimensional channels","authors":"Yang Liu, Jing Liu, Jianbo Hu","doi":"10.1186/s42480-019-0003-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s42480-019-0003-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Noble gas separation by microporous materials is a promising alternative to energy-intensive cryogenic distillation method by reducing the separation cost; however, developing novel microporous materials with excellent noble gas separation performance is still challenging due to closing chemical and physical properties among the gases. In this study, we propose to separate the noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe) utilizing a metal organic framework (MOF), named SIFSIX-3-Zn, with ultra-micron sized 1-dimenssional (1D) channels (3.84??). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the 1D channels provide significant adsorption potential differences among the noble gas molecules in various sizes: the larger the molecular size, the stronger the adsorption potential. Grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations verify that the MOF exhibits exceptional equilibrium separation performance of noble gases. Remarkably, Xe/He and Xe/Ne adsorption selectivity can be as high as 645 and 596, respectively, at 298?K and 10?kPa. While Xe/Kr selectivity in mixed gas is around 12 with a Xe adsorption amount of about 2.27?mmol/g at 273?K and 100?kPa, making SIFSIX-3-Zn one of the promising materials for equilibrium separation of Xe/Kr mixtures.</p>","PeriodicalId":495,"journal":{"name":"BMC Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.35,"publicationDate":"2019-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s42480-019-0003-y","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5148395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}