This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $469,833 to the University of Florida to develop two-dimensional polymer membranes with precisely engineered gas-selective nanocavities. The goal is to create an energy-efficient, cost-competitive solution for separating gas molecules in industrial applications like carbon dioxide capture and petrochemical purification. The research will focus on designing macrocycle-based membranes that...
This $299,973 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports research to develop pore-engineered membranes using an in situ atomic layer deposition process for improved chemical separations. The key research objectives are to eliminate molecular-scale membrane defects, precisely tune membrane pore sizes, and introduce facilitating interactions between metal oxides and diffusing gases to maximize gas selectivity and permeance. The...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $1,000,000 Project Grant under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to Trustees of Tufts College, doing business as Tufts University, for a project titled "RAISE: CET: ZWITTERIONIC MEMBRANES FOR RARE EARTH ELEMENT (REE) SEPARATIONS." The project aims to design novel membrane materials featuring nanoscale structures, inspired by biological pores, that can selectively enrich and separate rare earth elements (REEs). Researchers will use...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will fund research to develop carbon molecular sieve membranes for high-temperature gas separation applications. The $414,710 award, effective November 1, 2024 through December 31, 2025, will support the University of Miami in systematically investigating the relationship between the polymer precursor microstructure and the physical aging and gas separation performance of the resulting carbon...
The National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems awarded Arizona State University a $452,000 Project Grant under the Engineering (47.041) federal grant program. The three-year award will support research to develop scalable synthesis methods for producing ultrathin two-dimensional covalent organic framework membranes with sub-1 nm pores. These membranes show potential for molecular separations in industrial processes related to fuels,...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems awarded a $219,996 Project Grant to the University of Florida to develop new fundamental knowledge of membrane structures and performance. The project, which runs from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026, will utilize synthetic chemistry, polymer science, and advanced characterization techniques to design and study "doubly segmented ionenes," a new type of polymer membrane...
This three-year $580,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems will fund research into quantifying the role of interfaces in liquid separation membranes based on carbon molecular sieves. The goal is to develop fundamental knowledge of how interfaces impact liquid transport across carbon molecular sieve membranes at length scales below and above one micrometer. Investigators will combine advanced diffusion...
This $311,985 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering (CFDA 47.041) program supports research on the scalable manufacturing of large-area thin films of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for separation applications. The University of Illinois, as the prime awardee, is using a combination of in-situ experimentation, modeling, and separation measurements to develop fundamental manufacturing knowledge on MOF thin film formation through scalable coating techniques like...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering (CFDA 47.041) EAGER award of $259,999 provided to the University of North Dakota (UND) supports the development of a novel technique for fabricating two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial-based gas separation membranes. The project aims to leverage paramagnetically-induced arrangement of 2D nanomaterials to enable precise control over the formation of nanochannels within the membrane structure. This is expected to result in enhanced selectivity and...
This $350,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) supports a collaborative research effort between Johns Hopkins University and the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The goal is to design and develop novel metal-organic framework (MOF) catalysts for electrochemical synthesis of commercially valuable organonitrogen compounds like urea, acetamide, and N-methylamines. The project has three key objectives: (1)...