Roya Maboudian (Advisor)

A large number of poisonous chemicals, such as PFOA, PFOS, and mercury ions, are mandated to be controlled in drinking water with their permissible concentrations below parts-per-billion (ppb). In this context, an increase in the concentration is a necessary step preceding detection. Apart from their selective absorption ability, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have an extraordinarily large internal surface area, which can be used for extraction. In terms of detection methods, Raman spectroscopy is a powerful non-invasive chemical detection technology characterized by portability,...

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly designable porous materials and are recognized for their exceptional selectivity as chemical sensors. However, they are not always suitable for incorporation with existing sensing platforms, especially sensing modes that rely on electronic changes in the sensing material (e.g., work-function response or conductometric response). One way that MOFs can be utilized is by growing them as a porous membrane on a sensing layer and using the MOF to affect the electronic structure of the sensing layer. In this paper, a proof-of-concept for...