SUR-MOFs Modified Materials for Technical Applications

Goal of the group

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) or porous coordination polymers (PCPs) represent a class of highly functional solid materials assembled from metal or metal/oxo nodes and di- or higher-topic organic linkers that continue to receive enormous attention. Due to their modular composition and the ability to access a large number of topologies, a huge number of different types of these porous materials, covering a broad spectrum of functionalities, has become available. In addition, these materials have unique structures as well as physical, chemical and other properties that could prove useful for several applications

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In addition, combination of different types of hetero-MOFs fabricated by employing heteroepitaxy via layer-by-layer procedures allows the integration of several different functionalities in these materials, including electrical conductivity, optical up-conversion, luminescent properties, and the ability to modulate electrical properties upon illumination with light.
For numerous usages of MOFs, the commonly isolated powder-form, consisting of μm-sized particles, is well suited, e.g. for gas storage, and water treatment applications. However, a number of other emerging applications exploiting electrical and optical properties of MOFs require high quality monolithic, pinhole-free thin films supported on solid substrates, including coatings on fibers. Well-defined thin films are also required for the fabrication of membranes for gas-phase or liquid separation, the construction of sensor devices, the fabrication of optical, photovoltaic, and electronic devices, as well as the use of MOF thin films in electrochemical applications. In order to meet the demand for such thin films, the aim of this group is to synthesize and develop different types of Surface-Anchored Metal-Organic Frameworks (SURMOFs), required for different applications, by means of several techniques, such as Layer-By-Layer (LBL), the in-situ technique or Vapor-Phase deposition, etc.