Modulation of Zirconium Metal-Organic Frameworks: New Properties, New Applications

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are network materials comprised of organic ligands connected by metal ion clusters into multidimensional structures that often have permanent porosity. Their chemically addressable structures, combined with their ability to store large quantities of small molecules within their pores, have led to applications in gas storage, heterogeneous catalysis, sensing, and drug delivery, amongst others. Coordination modulation, the addition of monomeric modulators to synthetic mixtures, can tune particle size from nanometres to centimetres, through capping of crystallites (decreasing) or coordinative competition with ligands (increasing). The seminar will cover development of our own modulation techniques for zirconium MOFs, and the subsequent characterisation of their mechanical properties, development of fluorescent sensors, sequestration of toxic gases, and surface functionalisation for targeted anti-cancer nanomedicine.