Functional Metal Organic Frameworks as Heterogeneous Catalysts

Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are novel organic-inorganic crystalline materials, which promise to become a powerful and flexible family for different industrial uses within catalysis, adsorption and sensor technology, overcoming many of the limitations of zeolites, the porous crystalline solids which are conventionally used as catalysts: MOFs may display extreme porosity and surface areas, and their functionalities can be tailored by using functional precursors in their preparation or by post-functionalisation using standard techniques of organic- and organometallic chemistry. These features will be studied in the present project for the development of new heterogeneous catalysts and gas adsorbents.