Advancing Fundamental Synthetic and Structural Chemistry for the Design of High-Performance Metal-Organic Framework Materials
PI: Pingyun Feng, Department of Chemistry, University of California at Riverside
The overall goal of this project is to develop transformative synthetic and structural concepts to create novel framework materials with new types of host-guest chemistry. Through new materials-design concepts and creation of versatile structural platforms, this project aims to advance fundamental chemistry of elemental and molecular building blocks, with the objective to create materials for energy-related applications. A unique feature of this project is its ability to generate highly stable materials platforms with exceptional tunability. Such platforms with high isoreticular tolerance enable the discovery of new porous materials with high uptake capacity, high separation selectivity, and easy adsorbent regeneration, all of which are desirable for energy-efficient gas storage and separation applications. The proposed activity integrates synthesis and structure analysis with various characterizations. Sorption properties of various gases and breakthrough experiments of different gas mixtures will be evaluated to gain insight into composition-structure-property correlation. The specific aims are: (1) to gain new insight into chemistry of earth-abundant elements and their use in materials’ design, (2) to initiate a new paradigm that will re-define the pore space partition concept in a broader term, and (3) to probe the impact of non-coordination interactions in the design of coordination assembly by using the pore-partitioned multi-module system that offers unmatched opportunities to utilize non-covalent interactions to modulate the assembly process
