MOFs tagged posts

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science have figured out how to take a miracle material, one capable of extracting value from captured carbon dioxide, and do what no one else has: make it practical to fabricate for large-scale application.

The breakthrough from chemical engineering assistant professor Gaurav “Gino” Giri’s lab group has implications for the cleanup of the greenhouse gas, a major contributor to the climate change dilemma...

Advances in electrochromic coatings may bring us closer to environmentally friendly ways to keep inside spaces cool. Like eyeglasses that darken to provide sun protection, the optical properties of these transparent films can be tuned with electricity to block out solar heat and light. Now, researchers in ACS Energy Letters report demonstrating a new electrochromic film design based on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that quickly and reliably switch from transparent to glare-diminishing green to thermal-insulating red.

Hongbo Xu and colleagues used MOFs in their electrochromic film because of the crystalline substances’ abilities to form thin films with pore sizes that can be customize...

Individual crystals of synthetic zhemchuzhnikovite, prepared by Igor Huski?, McGill University. Credit: Igor Huski?, Friš?i? Research Group, McGill University

A surprising discovery reveals that MOFs also exist in nature – albeit in the form of rare minerals found so far only in Siberian coal mines. Metal-organic frameworks are human-made materials introduced in the 1990s, and researchers are working on ways to use them as molecular sponges for applications such as H storage, C sequestration, or photovoltaics.

The finding “completely changes the normal view of these highly popular materials as solely artificial, ‘designer’ solids,” says Tomislav Friščić, an associate professor of chemistry at McGill University in Montreal...

The 3D structure of the metal-organic framework used in this study. The nanopores are represented as yellow balls. Credit: Image courtesy of KU Leuven

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a new type of materials with nanoscale pores. Bioscience engineers have now developed an alternative method that produces these materials in the form of very thin films, so that they can easily be used for high-tech applications such as microchips.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a recently developed type of materials that consist of a nanoporous grid of both organic molecules and metal ions. MOFs take shape as the organic molecules push the metal ions apart, so that a regular pattern of tiny holes or nanopores develops. The size of the pores can be tuned at the nanoscale level...