MembranAir

The work carried out as part of Nicolas Sadovnik’s thesis (Elimination of formaldehyde by recyclable adsorbers, 2017- 2021) highlighted the excellent capture properties of MOF Al-pda (formula Al(OH)-3.5 PDA with PDA: pyrazole dicarboxylate) for formaldehyde, major indoor air pollutant.
SquairTech intends to market this material for various air purification applications (building, transport, industry). However, the MOF powder must be shaped according to precise specifications to be used in purification systems (purifier, CTA etc.). Indeed, the object obtained must combine good purification performance and low pressure losses, in addition to good mechanical stability.

In collaboration with the CRC, a reference laboratory in heritage conservation including ancient films, the IMAP, a laboratory with strong expertise in the shaping of MOFs, has recently developed a manufacturing protocol for a mechanically stable cellulosic membrane containing an exceptional MOF content. These studies were initiated as part of the European Nemosine project (2018-2022), then continued as part of a joint CRC/IMAP thesis, and showed the excellent performance of these membranes for the capture of a volatile organic compound (VOC) accelerating the degradation of old films or books, acetic acid.
One of the objectives of this project is to manufacture and optimize Al-pda based membranes for the capture of formaldehyde from indoor air based on the protocol developed between IMAP and CRC.

The membranes will be integrated into an air purifier to be tested on a scale 1 in an environmental chamber under representative air pollution conditions. These measurements will make it possible to evaluate the filtration efficiency as well as the associated pressure losses and to better understand the effect of the properties of the membranes (porosity, thickness, MOF content etc) on their performance for this application.