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Presentation: Renewable MOF-Coated Delignified Wood Composites for Sustainable Gas Separation

Speaker: Professor Yeqing Wang

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as highly tunable and efficient materials for gas separation, but their practical deployment is limited by scalability and structural fragility.

This presentation will explore delignified wood (DW) as a renewable, highly porous scaffold to host MOF particles and create robust composites for gas separation applications. Plasma etching was used to introduce reactive –COOH groups onto the DW surface, enabling effective MOF attachment through dip-coating and electrostatic interactions. Surface characterization confirmed uniform coating of UiO-66-NH₂ MOF particles, achieving loadings up to 330 wt%. While inner-channel infiltration remains challenging, the DW scaffolds demonstrated enhanced stability compared to conventional thin-film or paper-based supports.

Mechanical and airflow tests indicated that MOF loading stabilizes under operating conditions, with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) binders further improving adhesion at the cost of reduced formaldehyde absorption efficiency.

Overall, this study highlights MOF-coated DW as a promising sustainable platform combining mechanical robustness, high porosity, and selective adsorption capability, offering new opportunities in scalable and renewable gas separation technologies.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Yeqing Wang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Syracuse University (SU). Before joining SU in August 2020, he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University between 2018 and 2020. From 2016–2018, Dr. Wang worked as a postdoc at the Air Force Research Lab (Eglin Air Force Base) and University of Florida. His research interests include mechanics of composite materials and structures, multifunctional composites, and advanced manufacturing of composite materials. Dr. Wang’s research projects have been funded by NSF, NASA, Boeing, and Oak Ridge Associated Universities. He is a recipient of the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award and the Best Paper Award at the 2012 American Society for Composites Technical Conference, a voted member of the ASME Structures & Materials Technical Committee, and a senior member of the AIAA. Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Iowa.