Omar Farha, Programmable Sponges for Gas Capture
The research of chemistry Professor Omar Farha, PhD, has focused on how to blend the disciplines of chemistry and materials science to design programmable materials that can help protect people’s health and that of the planet.
With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Defense for almost a decade, Farha has investigated how to modify the function of materials and create cutting-edge nanomaterials, called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), for use in applications like gas storage and separation, water remediation and detoxification of chemical warfare agents.
The potential for this line of MOF research to create useful products led to the 2014 founding of NuMat Technologies, a Skokie-based company with 35 full-time employees. Farha, who serves as president, launched the startup along with CEO Benjamin Hernandez, then a JD/MBA student at Northwestern, and Christopher Wilmer, a chemical engineering PhD student at the time. NuMat has since worked in end markets like life science, electronics, chemicals, and transportation.
Among the products NuMat has developed, under the leadership of Farha and Hernandez, is a crystalline programmable sponge called ION-X, which was commercialized in 2016. ION-X uses MOFs to enable safe storage of extremely toxic gases sub-atmospherically. This technology safely protects operators by ensuring that in case of any leak, air will rush into the cylinder, while the toxic gas remains.
In addition, MOFs are completely programmable. They can be designed for gas separation such that the affinity for a specific impure or hazardous gas may be increased and captured, while other gases do not interact with the sorbent.
More recently, Farha’s work has pivoted with the pandemic in mind. Through a National Science Foundation grant, his team has extended the application of the Northwestern MOFs by infusing these materials into self-cleaning masks for COVID-19. Farha said, “If COVID lands on the mask, the sponges will do their job. And not just COVID—it will have the ability to deactivate any virus.”
Farha notes that it may still be a couple of years before the technology will be ready to go to market. However, with the future capability to deactivate any type of virus built into masks and other PPEs, Farha said, “It will be ready for future [pandemic], so our front-liners don’t have to worry about the shortage of PPE. It’s a technology we adapted from all the learning we did with DOD-related projects in the past few years.”