NAMS 2012 Tuesday Keynote - Inga Musselman

Inga Holl Musselman received the B.A. degree in Chemistry from Gettysburg College in 1982 and the Ph.D. degree in Analytical Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988.  She conducted doctoral research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and postdoctoral studies in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University.  Dr. Musselman is presently Professor of Chemistry and Associate Provost at The University of Texas at Dallas.  Dr. Musselman’s research interests include developing microscopy methods and applying them to the study of materials structure in the areas of gas separations, fuel cells, and bionanotechnology.  In an effort to correlate membrane microstructure with gas permeability properties, the Musselman Group applies optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy techniques to investigate the microstructure of polymer-based mixed-matrix membranes that incorporate microporous and mesoporous materials as well as metal-organic frameworks.  Dr. Musselman has been awarded 3 patents and has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and 2 chapters in edited volumes.  In addition to the North American Membrane Society, Dr. Musselman in a member of the American Chemical Society and the Microanalysis Society (MAS), which she served as President in 2004-2005.  MAS presented Professor Musselman with the Presidential Service Award in 2003.

Inga Musselman

Associate Provost, Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost

Professor, Department of Chemistry, BE26

The University of Texas at Dallas

800 W. Campbell Road

Richardson, TX  75080-3021

972-883-2706 (phone)

imusselm@utdallas.edu

Abstract:

MOF Membrane Structure: Past, Present, and Future

Mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) have received much attention for gas separations especially since Lloyd Robeson published an upper bound for the performance of pure polymers.  A wide variety of materials have been added to polymers including zeolites, mesoporous materials, carbon molecular sieves, and carbon nanotubes.  The additives enhance gas selectivity and flux, while the polymer matrix provides for ease of membrane fabrication.  Recently, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been used to fabricate MMMs.  MOFs are three-dimensional crystalline materials consisting of metal clusters and organic linkers.  A sub-class of MOFs, the zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), exhibit zeolite topologies and have angstrom-sized pore apertures.  As a result, ZIFs have the potential to both participate in the size-sieving of gases and to form strong interactions with the polymer host.  This presentation will examine past and present mixed-matrix membranes focusing on their microstructures.  Potential future MOF membrane architectures will also be proposed.