Continuous flow synthesis of porous materials

Porous materials play an important role in chemical catalysis, separation and other industrial applications. High-efficiency preparation of porous materials has become an active research area. Conventional synthesis of porous materials has been dominated by one-pot solution processing conditions carried out by bulk mixing under conventional electric heating via hydrothermal, solvothermal or ionothermal reactions where high temperatures and pressures are the standard. Continuous flow synthesis has many key advantages in terms of efficient mass and heat transfer, precise control of residence times, improved opportunities for automation and feedback control of synthesis, scaling-up reactions and improved safety parameters compared to above mentioned conventional batch scale synthetic methods. In this review, continuous flow synthesis of various crystalline porous materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent-organic frameworks (COFs), porous organic cages and zeolites is discussed. Combination of microfluidic methods with other techniques are also shown including various heating ways and various methods of substrate adding. (C) 2019 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.