Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have fascinated massive attention all through the last 2 decades because of outstanding properties such as high surface areas, tunable porosity, convenient properties. These properties have made MOFs an interesting choice for various applications including Gas separation storage media for gases, high capacity adsorbents, catalysis, sensing, drug delivery, thin film devices, clean energy, luminescence and magnetism.

In present work, Polyimide and functionalized UiO-66 based membranes were prepared. The surface of the as-synthesized UiO-66 was functionalized with the sulfonate group via a grafting method. Mercaptopropyl trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) was added in the mixture solution for chemical modification along with H₂O₂ and H₂SO₄.

Influence of sulfonated functionalization of the MOF on performance of membranes was studied in this work. It is revealed that the –SO₃H functionalized UiO-66 forms demonstrated the premier selectivity, privileged CO₂ uptake, elevated physicochemical stability and superior heat of adsorption due to strong interactions of grafted groups as compared to UiO-66 . These are synthesized using reticular chemistry and these materials exhibited high thermal and chemical stabilities, yet functional groups are also attached to the linkers.