In Situ Growth of Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs) Within Porous Silicon Carbide (p-SiC) for Constructing Hierarchical Porous Composites

TL;DR

Researchers created a composite material by growing MOF crystals inside porous silicon carbide, enhancing CO2 adsorption and offering potential for geological applications.

Contribution

A scalable method to in situ grow ZIF-8 MOFs within p-SiC, creating hierarchical porous composites with high surface area and CO2 adsorption.

Findings

ZIF-8/p-SiC composites achieved a specific surface area 183 times higher than raw p-SiC.

The composite showed significantly enhanced CO2 adsorption capacity.

The method is reproducible and scalable, enabling practical engineering applications.

Abstract

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) typically exist in the form of powders or dispersed crystals, which limits their direct application in practical engineering scenarios that require monolithic structures and processability. To address this issue, the present study successfully anchored MOF (zeolitic imidazolate framework-8, ZIF-8) nanocrystals within a porous silicon carbide (p-SiC) substrate via a facile in situ growth strategy, achieving both stable macroscopic loading and intimate microscopic interfacial bonding. The resulting ZIF-8/p-SiC composite exhibits a hierarchical porous structure, with a specific surface area approximately 183 times higher than that of the raw p-SiC, alongside a substantially enhanced CO2 adsorption capacity. By utilizing a low-cost p-SiC support and mild ZIF-8 synthesis conditions, this work demonstrates excellent reproducibility and scalability, providing a facile and effective pathway for fabricating MOF/porous media composite systems that possess both superior mechanical properties and tailored pore structures. Additionally, the developed MOF/p-SiC composites can serve as controllable rock-analog porous media, offering new perspectives for investigating MOF-rock interfacial interactions and CO2 geological sequestration mechanisms, thereby establishing an organic link between fundamental materials science and geological engineering applications.

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