Asier Rodríguez

Asier

Rodriguez

MMRES student at ICN2 and ICIQ
Class 2018-2019

After MMRES:

PhD at MIBTP University of Birmingham, UK

Summary

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are a promising new kind of crystalline and porous hybrid materials with a large range of applications. One of their main advantages is the possibility to chemically modify them after being synthetized to get new functionalities. However, such modifications are carried out by solid-liquid methodologies that need high temperature harsh conditions and lead, in general, to low yields. Recently, our group has developed the use of solid-gas phase ozonolysis to postsynthetically modify MOFs demonstrating that mesoporosity can be generated in a MOF framework by the selective ligand cleavage using ozone. In this master, we have gone one step further in the development of this new methodology. On one hand, we by carefully selecting mixed-ligand Zr-fcu-MOFs based on organic ligand pairs in which one ligand has ozone-cleavable olefin bonds and the other ligand is ozone-resistant, we have selectively break the cleavable ligand via ozonolysis to generate mesopores within the MOF framework and use these mesopores to absorb enzymes. On the other, we have studied the ozonolysis in MOFs where cleavable ligands are located in controlled positions. Bibliographic study of MOFs structured was performed in order to define suitable structures. Two systems have been chosen for further experimentation: DUT-5 and MOF-907. In both cases, active analogues to reported ligands have been designed and theoretically (in case of DUT-5) and experimentally studied. We finally reported its synthesis of MOF-907-pdac, as well as the ozonolysis, potentially leading to the formation of 0D nanocages.

Major project supervisor

Daniel Maspoch
ICN2

Minor project supervisor

Núria Lopez
ICIQ