DefTiMOFs · Defective Titanium Metal-Organic Frameworks
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-05-13 → 2021-05-12
- EU contribution
- €160,932
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Defective Titanium Metal-Organic Frameworks
Defect engineering of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) - hybrid porous compounds composed of metal ions or metal clusters linked by multidentate organic ligands – has recently acquired a tremendous interest since defects have direct implication in the material’s properties, such as mechanical and thermal stability, photo-stimulation, transport and storage performance, chemical reactivity and porosity, and thus are strongly related with the material function and subsequent application. Despite defect engineering being a versatile tool to modify MOFs’ properties, the synthetic control of defected MOFs is still a challenging goal and defect engineering of MOFs is mostly limited to Zr6-based MOFs. Understanding the formation of defects at a molecular level and establishing a direct structure-function correlation is imperative for the application of defected MOFs. Elucidation of the type of defects, their concentration and spatial distribution within the framework at a molecular level is still a challenge for conventional characterization techniques and the handful of studies available are still limited to UiO-66 Zr6-MOFs derivatives. Titanium-based MOFs - which are photoactive and have superior structural and chemical stability compared to other MOFs - are emerging in the literature, but their defect chemistry remains almost unexplored. Titanium has at the same time low cytotoxicity, a lower density than zirconium, and it is abundant. Importantly, TiO2 has been recently classified as a possible carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and its replacement in diverse applications might be achieved by the design of biocompatible Ti-MOFs. The objective of DefTiMOFs is to establish fundamental synthetic platforms that guide defect engineering beyond Zr6-based UiO MOFs. By controlling defect chemistry at a molecular level, particle size and surface chemistry of Titanium MOFs during synthesis, DefTiMOFs aims to provide the base of knowledge to anticipate Ti-MOFs properties based on the synthetic conditions and to elucidate their defect-to-function correlation in the context of environmentally relevant applications such as sustainable energy (catalysis and photocatalysis) and water harvesting from air.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) – porous materials with almost unlimited chemical and structural diversity - have incited an interesting alternative to the drawbacks that nanotechnology is currently facing. The defect engineering of MOFs has been used as a tool to modify their porosity, chemical reactivity and electronic conductivity among other properties, but research is still limited in the vast majority towards Zr-MOFs. Notably, defect chemistry of Ti-MOFs remains unexplored despite that the pristine materials photoactivity, chemical and structural stability and Titanium being an abundant biocompatible metal.This project, entitled `Defective Titanium Metal-Organic-Frameworks(DefTiMOFs)’ aims to develop novel high-throughput (HT)synthetic methodologies for the control of not only defect chemistry of Ti-MOFs,but also of their particle size and inner surface (porefunctionalisation) towards the controllable modification of their properties. HT synthesis will be convened with a set of novel characterisation techniques (mainly synchrotron-based) for atomic and molecular level of characterisation of defects, aiming to correlate synthetic conditions with defect formation (defect type, densityand spatial distribution within the framework)in order to provide thebase of knowledge to anticipate their properties based on the synthetic conditions. This will then allow for defect engineering of MOFs using a wide range of materials.In view of the above and inspired by the high demand for clean and renewable energy sources including efficient and affordablewater delivery systems in places with limited access to drinkablewater, the DefTiMOFs project aims to correlate defect chemistry of Ti-MOFs with their performance towards environmentally friendly applications. This will lead to the ultimate design of materials with outstanding performance in heterogeneous catalysis, photocatalysis (hydrogen production) and water harvesting from air.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA · ValenciaCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union