Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-Enabled Membranes: Challenges and Opportunities

ZIFs are a unique class of porous solids topologically associated with zeolites, but dramatically different in components. Current research on ZIF-enabled membranes is highly imbalanced. Despite a large selection of available ZIF materials, seven out of ten published papers discuss ZIF-8-based membranes. This is partially due to insufficient knowledge on ZIFs' structure-transport property relationships as well as lack of capability to tailor their transport properties for particular separations. This Perspective will provide an account of recent progress in ZIF-enabled membranes and analyze the barriers that must be overcome to advance ZIF-enabled membranes beyond fundamental characterizations.