Hemilabile and Switchable Metal-Organic Frameworks

This grant proposal comes from a team of researchers with expertise spanning synthesis, characterisation and adsorption studies of porous materials. The project is to develop and generalise two new concepts in metal-organic framework (MOF) chemistry that the team have recently published in Nature Chemistry. The overall goal is to provide a step change in the properties of MOFs (including stability of the materials) to enable new types of chemistry that are not currently possible. To do this requires that the preliminary concepts are generalised to maximise their impact in both the academic and, in the long term, commercial worlds (see impact statement). An added feature of the novelty of this work is the application of advanced characterisation techniques, including X-ray pair distribution function analysis and in situ X-ray diffraction and combined adsorption/neutron diffraction to probe the structure and properties of the materials prepared.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are some of the most exciting and fast-developing materials that have been prepared in the last decade or so. The great versatility of the chemistry of these solids leads to ultra-high porosity, extreme flexibility, post synthetic modification potential and many other interesting and conceivably useful attributes. Because of this wide ranging chemistry and function, potential applications of these solids range from gas storage, separation and delivery, catalysis, and sensing all the way to biology and medicine. In the UK we have great strength in variety of these areas, in highly porous materials and hydrogen storage, chiral and bio-inspired MOFs, post-synthetic modification, computational aspects, crystal growth and several excellent synthetic/materials groups. However, the international competition is great in this rapidly growing area. The importance of developing the synthesis itself as a route to useful attributes has been recognised as a 'Grand Challenge' in the EPSRC-funded network entitled Directed Assembly of Extended Structures with Targeted Properties. The national importance of this area is implicit in its designation as a Grand Challenge. As the field moves on there is a great focus on developing both the fundamental and applied aspects of MOFs.

The overriding goal of this proposal is to develop the fundamental synthesis and potential of MOFs as reactive species in their own right. So there are no specific economic impacts targeted in the proposal.

However the groups involved in the is project are extremely active in developing commercial applications of MOFs and so it is always in our minds that an eventual long-range target of our research is always to have economic impact. In that sense part of our overall group strategy contains the explicit goal of developing a commercialisation plan for our MOF technologies with the aim of exploiting our intellectual property to its fullest extent.

In one area of commercialisation we are looking to develop MOFs towards applications in chemicals processing. It is in this area that the long term economic benefits of this proposal may lie. The development of thermally robust, reactive MOFs has the potential to truly transform the applicability of MOFs in chemicals processing - a major stumbling block in the past has been their lack of stability. However, it should be reiterated that this is primarily a fundamental study and the economic impact is still a long term goal and not short term.

Developing the skills of the personnel involved in the project is an important impact and one that is taken very seriously at both St Andrews and Newcastle. The PDRAs that will be employed on this project are likely to have excellent technical skills already, but these will be added to through the high quality science they will be required to complete. Added value to the training in this project comes from the cross disciplinary (chemistry and chemical engineering) nature of the work and the necessity of the PDRAs to be involved in different aspects. In this way it is likely that they will be exposed to a new audience for their scientific work, and as well as being technically well trained they will also need to develop some understanding of the multidisciplinarity that will stand them in good stead for their future careers in either academic or industrial scientific research and development. As with any innovative research project all members of the team will develop their personal skills.