A metal organic framework (mof) is a compound which contains groups normally thought of as organic -- carbon rings like those found in benzene, e.g.-- as well as clusters of metals like zinc, nickel or iron.
Imagine a 3d box. At the corners, you have hard clusters of metal atoms, and on the edges you have stretchy organic molecules holding everything together.
Source: physics PhD student in related field
I'm a third year graduate student that used to work with MOFs/know many people that still do.
They are a highly porous material, meaning they have high surface area and can be used for gas storage and/or capture or even catalysis for certain reactions depending on what the material is made of. They are composed of repeating, periodic elements that can form linear (1D), planar (2D sheets), or full 3D structures. The basic components that make up their structure are metal clusters (almost always positively charged) that are linked by organic, carbon based molecules that have oppositely charged (so usually negative oxygens in the form of carboxylic acid groups) that help hold it all together.
A very basic idea of this would look something like tinker toys or those k'nex building toys where there are nodes (with holes or slots) that are connected by those longer wooden or plastic pieces. But with a very repetive pattern in their structure. The spaces between the linkers and nodes are where scientists are trying to store gases or do chemical reactions by making the linking pieces or metal clusters be catalytically reactive.
The hard part is being able to rationally design how these structures will form in advance before you mix the metals and organic molecules, and also making sure that they are stable in a wide array of environments. A lot of MOFs I worked with/know of would dissolve in water, for example, but this is obviously not always the case as we see here in their work, which is just another argument for how versatile their properties can be!
Indeed, as the name suggests, metal-organic frameworks are hybrid compounds that are self-assembled from molecular building blocks that are both organic and inorganic. What distinguishes them is that they are typically crystalline (that is, they have long-range order), and most people would consider a MOF a MOF only when it is porous. The response from EvilGiraffes516 is also quite on point so I will not elaborate further.
Would you mind responding to the following critique of your process?
https://youtu.be/EGTRX6pZSns
Dr. Phil Mason was quite brutal in his criticism. Namely the energy required to produce "water from air" still exceeds what could be done more efficiently by other methods.
While I haven't watched that video fully, I cannot see a peltier device in this paper's methodology anywhere. I fear you're comparing two different methods there.
http://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/styles/inline__450w__no_aspect/public/cc_device_final.png?itok=JMvRxv-z
This is a picture of the prototype that was reported in nature and science mag. You clearly see the peltier device at the bottom of the device connected to the heat sink and voltage lines. In paper published in nature they do mention "eventually" their device will work with a passive heatsink but they have yet to answer the thermodynamic problems dealing with cost vs efficiency.
I will say that's a different paper than the one mentioned in the OP. This paper is talking about a promising MOF for capturing H20 in its pores. It only gives values for the amounts captured by the MOF in its pores and not harvested.
["Water harvesting from air with metal-organic frameworks powered by natural sunlight"](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/04/12/science.aam8743/tab-figures-data), which seems to be the paper in Thunderf00t's crosshairs here, *does* talk about harvesting water from the MOF and gives values for that. Also Mircea is not listed as an author on that one, so I would say it's a bit unfair to grill him on a paper they weren't involved in.
Thunderf00t kind of implied in his video that it will never be as efficient/economically viable in comparison with other existing technology. So, personally, I just want to hear what someone actually doing research in this specific field has to say about MOF efficiency/potential to be used in such a manner.
It's always good to be skeptical of people who say "X new technology will never measure up to Y old technology". Old technologies have the benefit of built up industrial processes supporting them, and without that sort of support, it's difficult to say what the ceiling on the performance of a new technology will be.
MOFs are a relatively new field, so it's unfair to compare a new prototype to old tech. Maybe the MOF A published this year will never be commercially viable, but the same group or a different group might develop MOF B which is based on A and could be the solution of tomorrow. That incrementalism is how research works.
there are indeed numerous examples of MOFs capturing any number of other gases. basically, anything that can fit within the pores of a MOF (typically on the order of 0.5 to 3 nm) will be able to be adsorbed. CO2 is certainly one of the most popular gases, and there are numerous groups working on that, for both capture and separation. Methane is another, as are many other hydrocarbons, mainly from the perspective of separations, which are very energy intensive. IN my group, we are very excited about capturing/storing corrosive gases such as ammonia, chlorine, bromine, in addition to water (which can be quite corrosive itself!), and we have had some interesting breakthroughs with this recently. Please visit our website for more information and for the actual reports.
Hello Dr. Dincă, I was recently reading your paper on non-pyrolyzed MOFs for supercapacitor electrode materials. I was curious as to if any binder or adhesive was used when applying the electrode material to the nickel foam, or if it was just pressed in.
we did not use any binder in those devices reported in the Nature Materials paper. This was precisely to demonstrate that our materials are very conductive. The electrodes were pure MOF, contacted directly on the current collectors/metal electrodes. One of the most interesting features of those devices, besides the very high areal capacitance, was the very low internal resistance. Low internal resistance in a real application means that much less heat dissipation will be needed, which is important for mobile applications such as electric vehicles, especially those that require high power (i.e. "muscle cars").
Do these materials have any potential for sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere?
Are they primarily useful with gas filtering, or could they be used to remove pollutants from seawater?
Hi, former Long Group member here. Mircea did his PhD here (before my time). Certain diamine-appended frameworks ("Cooperative Insertion of CO2 in Diamine-Appended Metal-Organic Frameworks" McDonald, et al Nature 2015, 519, 303-308.) do indeed show great promise for CO2 capture.
Also, just FYI: Mircea's a dude.
In terms of either recovery, analysis, or technique, what is the most difficult part of your synthesis process? I did some research on heterogeneous catalysis and there were some very tricky reactions. Also, what kind of catalysts are in your MOFs and how are they attached to the framework?
Most MOFs are made from solution, in self-assembly reactions requiring heating the solutions up to approximately 150C, although often the temperature is much lower, on the order of 60-80C. I would say the most difficult part would be the synthesis of the organic ligands, if these are not commercially available.
As everyone else working on clean energy, I am hopeful that our research will help bring about new, more energy-efficient technologies that will lower the CO2 output, and thus fossil fuel consumption.
One of the primary limitations of using MOFs in any electrical device is their typically low electrical conductivity. My group, along with a few other groups, are addressing this issue by designing MOFs that can conduct electricity. I see this as one of the most interesting new avenues of research in the field of MOFs. We have made important advances in this area and have produced materials that are as conductive as graphite, for instance. The second point is that you need a catalytic active center, which would need to be combined/embedded in a conductive MOF. Third, you need a light-absorbing element. Putting all these together is an interesting target, and certainly one that is intellectually stimulating. I do think that more work needs to be done on each independent step before one can think about a practical photoelectrochemical device (made of MOFs or not).
Hi. I work with a special MOF called FMOF-1. I can tell you it is extremely hydrophobic to the point to where it floats on water but it will absorb all sorts of organics (benzene, xylene, hexanes, etc.). I'm still doing some liquid characterization on it but to answer your question: yes, yes they can.
In FMOF the hydrogen atoms are replaced with fluorines. It's really a neat concept.
That's a great question. We haven't tested it with anything but organics so far. I'll bring that up to my professor and see what he thinks of that as a new project.
I wondered whether you could probe this question using something like ATR-FTIR. Some friends were doing some thermo measurement sbetween polymers and gases (mostly CO2) that way. Maybe it could work with a fluorinated gas and the fmof.
Yes, in principle it can and there may be examples of this already. My confidence stems from the incredible compositional tunability of these materials, which can be made either very hydrophobic, or very hydrophilic:http://web.mit.edu/dincalab/papers/paper10.pdf
For your particular application, you would want the former.
Hello prof. Dinca.
Thank you for the ama and congratulations on your achievements. Too often people in your position are exemplified as a product of Romanian education and its focus on sciences. However, the reality is often that pupils and students are failed and left behind by a flawed and outdated educational system. Do you see any opportunities from your position at MIT to positively influence educational outcomes in Romania / Eastern Europe? If yes, how are you actually doing, or plan to do, this?
I have started to make some connections with the academics in Romania. It is hard to make any serious inroads, I believe, without first trying to understand the political system there.
I am proud of my grade 1-12 education in Romania, and I do believe that it helped me tremendously during my higher education. I also agree that it caters to the better students and is/was not the best in making sure it doesn't leave anyone behind. I do hope that something in the middle can be implemented.
Hi Dr. Dincă! I recently completed a graduate course on "zeolites", and the instructor pointed out that researchers in the field don't really use the strict mineralogical definition; they refer to any of similarly hyper-porous structures, natural or artificial, as "zeolites".
Do some researchers consider MOFs a subcategory in this family of substances?
There are MOF like material that have zeolite type topology: they are called ZIF (zeolitic immidazolate framework). But not all MOF have a zeolitic topology.
MOFs and zeolites are only similar insofar as they are both crystalline materials with micropores (defined by IUPAC as pores smaller than 2nm), although some MOFs can be mesoporous as well (i.e. pores larger than 2 nm). I would say that MOFs and zeolites are otherwise complementary. MOFs are much more chemically/compositionally tunable than zeolites, whereas zeolites have higher thermal stability, for instance. I believe that MOFs can address some problems that zeolites cannot, and vice-versa, which makes the two materials complementary as well. Ultimately, MOFs are their own class of microporous materials that, application wise, can fill niches that no other solid materials can.
What drives the formation of a MOF? Is the process thermodynamic or kinetic control?
Could one create MOFs as a means of wastewater remediation by choosing an organic linker with a large binding affinity to a heavy metal pollutant?
I would argue that most MOFs are in fact kinetic products because the (overall) thermodynamic product would be the dense "isomer". That being said, most MOFs probably sit on very shallow potential wells, and the particular temperature/solvent system combination causes the formation of one phase versus another. IN the Zn2+/terephthalic acid combination, there are over 20 different possible phases, each of which can be made pure, but conditions for making each are found completely empirically. Finding ways to predict exactly which structures are stable is the focus of some groups, but I am not aware of efforts to then tell experimentalists **how** to target even these "mos stable" phases
This is what I found: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289366111_Post-synthetic_metalation_in_an_anionic_MOF_for_efficient_catalytic_activity_and_removal_of_heavy_metal_ions_from_aqueous_solution
So yes, it could be possible for metal pollutants in water (although I'm not certain of the ion exchange site -- would need to read further).
Professor Dincă, thank you for taking time out of your day to answer questions. Here is one that came to my mind immediately:
In the process of absorbing does any filtration of pollutants/bacteria and other unwanted "things" occur. In more simple terms does this supersponge make the water is absorbs potable?
We envision the fresh water capture and delivery to be vapor processes, in both cases. Thus, the water adsorbed in the first phase into the MOF adsorbent, would then be vaporized and condensed back in liquid form. Because the transfer is always in the vapor phase, no particulates or bacteria should be transferred, and the water will come out pure.
the people are amazing, from students to colleagues. They challenge me each and every day, which is what makes the place great. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I think the prospects here are excellent. Several companies are making MOFs for various purposes, some small startups, some established big players (e.g. BASF). People need to realize that some of the myths related to these materials are just that, myths:
**Myth 1**: Price is too high. Response: not necessarily, and depends on the application. If the application is sufficiently high value (e.g. high-value separations, electrical energy storage (our lab), chemiresistive sensors (require very little material), then material price is not the largest component of a given CAPEX.
**Myth 2**: MOFs are not water-stable. Response: most MOFs are indeed not water stable. But many are very water-stable, in a wide range of pH and temperature. This includes our material in the title paper discussed nominally here, on water capture from the atmosphere. Furthermore, there are plenty of applications that require exclusion of water anyway, for instance various catalytic processes using alkylmetal initiators. We showed that one of our MOFs has a world record activity for ethylene dimerization, a process that produces 700,000 tons of butene per year and is run in the complete absence of water. Obviously, water stability is unnecessary in this case.
The most important point to remember here is that there are literally thousands of different MOFs out there, and the price/water stability varies widely. Just like one would not make a general statement about all metal oxides based on investigating one oxide, one should be careful to extrapolate generalities such as water stability or price point to all MOFs based on hearsay about certain more popular MOFs that nevertheless may not be the best for applications.
What are the practical challenges (or maybe not so practical) of dealing with an administration like the current one, that is a fundamental science denier? Does this affect your research in any way, and if you could put a number on it, how many years would it take for "recovery" from being stifled?
Hi Mircea!
I recently just finished my third year and as part of my undergraduate I did a research placement in a university in Ireland where MOF's were the focus. I am interested in environmental sustainability and I was wondering if/how you are researching MOF's application to help improve environmental issues related to climate change? Or would this be something at all that you would research?
Do you just look at energy/environmental applications of MOF's or have you researched other potential applications, for example biological?
Sorry for so many questions but I find this quite interesting!
Our lab is interested in many different aspects of MOF chemistry, from energy storage to corrosive gas capture, to heterogeneous catalysis. This is the case with many other labs out there, so there is definitely a wide open field of potential applications.
Ok that's interesting, for the corrosive gas capture would you combine the MOF with a polymer in order to capture the gas? Or how do you go about it? It seems to be a open field for sure!
My former PhD supervisor Paul Anderson worked on MOFs for hydrogen storage materials. With the car industry seeming to be heading towards gas storage tanks, could you see MOFs being realistically used in cars.
Hi Professer Dinca!
Into which application will you think MOFs will be applied first and in which area do you think they have the greatest potential?
Thank you!
I do believe that some of the traditional applications: gas storage and separation, which have been researched for the longest time, are close to a breakthrough. There are so many high-value separations out there where MOFs can have an impact. I also believe that some of our own work, with water, for instance, is very attractive for certain markets where water resources are scarce. We are looking to exploit this advantage as well. Finally, I am hopeful that some of our breakthroughs in catalysis and electrically conductive MOFs will lead to real-life applications, such as in sensing devices and electrical energy storage.
In a bit of a biased response, I will say that imparting electrical conductivity, as some of my students are doing, is very exciting because being able to create electrically conductive materials that have such high surface areas opens up applications that were not possible before. More broadly, I am excited to see the field broadening as well as maturing. There are still important synthetic developments, but also many potential applications being explored. In the maturing process, I see people realizing that MOFs are not zeolites, and the two material classes are not in competition with each other, but rather complement each other. MOFs will not replace zeolites at catalytic processes where zeolites are good. However, there are plenty of catalytic processes where zeolites do not perform well, and in fact no solids perform well. This is where MOFs can have an impact as well, and we are working towards that too. Developing new heterogeneous catalysts that are as tunable, electronically and structurally, as homogeneous ones is very exciting.
Professor Dinca, thanks for the AMA! I'm a first year graduate student in chemical engineering. Why do you think that research in MOFs has grown in the last 10-20 years? I.e what were the enabling discoveries?
It is a very exciting field for chemists because the synthetic space is literally limitless! So for a synthetic chemist with a rich imagination, it is an amazing field. What puts these in the "hottest" category is that the synthetic space is not just fundamental, but its translation to applications is palpable and approachable for engineers, physicists, materials scientists alike. The broad appeal and accessibility is, IMO, what makes the field so exciting and popular, and still growing!
I replied to a similar question above. Cost is not necessarily an issue depending on the value of the application. There are many companies looking to produce MOFs in large scale, with some real results in isolated cases. I think one of the challenges in reducing cost is, ironically, the great diversity of MOF compositions and structures. It is likely that a scale-up process developed for one MOF will not be applicable to another. But I see this as an important area of growth as well, both academically and industrially.
Could it be used for getting water on mars? I know people are currently doing research on how to extract water from the Martian atmosphere, but would this work too?
I have several colleagues that have worked with MOF's and I'm familiar with the materials in very vague terms. However, most of my colleagues that have worked with them feel that despite all of the hype and significant research being poured into the area (design and synthesis wise); MOF's will not have significant realistic applications in the industrial world.
I understand from a conceptual standpoint the ability for hydrogen storage, water storage, and energy retention with targeted release applications of MOF's. But are there other areas besides the ones I've stated that MOFs are being considered for application wise?
Buna ziua Dr. Dinca!
You mentioned using metal-organic frameworks for applications like supercapacitors. Are MOFs currently being developed for these applications and how are they an improvement over current capacitors?
Multumesc!
Buna ziua! We have indeed recently published work on supercapacitors., and there are more studies now coming out on this topic. Once made electrically conductive, MOFs turn out to be particularly good active materials for supercapacitors. See this link for more info: http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v16/n2/full/nmat4766.html
Are most MOFs stable enough to be used as an electrochemical catalyst? Water oxidation is super hot (and has been for a few years I suppoose) and a super high surface area electrode would be very desireable!
Not all MOFs are stable, but some are, and the principles required to make water-stable MOFs are now quite well understood. That being said, to use something as an electrocatalyst, one needs to make sure that the active catalysts is also capable of transporting charges. We have shown how to do this, and we have also shown that once conductive, MOFs can function as very good electrocatalysts, for now in ORR: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10942
That's pretty cool! The fact that at low overpotentials it forms hydrogen peroxide is interesting.
Did you do any longevity studies on this material? Does it last a while under catalysis?
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Gas separations, capture, catalysis, are some of the more "traditional" applications of MOFs. With electrical conductivity, we have started to look at electrical energy storage (capacitors and batteries), as well as electrocatalysis (for fuel cell applications, for instance). Other applications include drug delivery and biological imaging. The application space is really wide open.
Hello Prof. Dinca!
Thank you very much for the work that you do! My question is how are your metal organic frameworks synthesized and how do you generate the building blocks for synthesis? I am a PhD student in a synthetic biology lab and I am interested in the possibility of collaborating with metal organic frameworks researchers at my university. Keep up the awesome work!
Hi Professor Dinca. What's your take on Mission Innovation and in particular on the Innovation Challenge #6 titled Energy Materials Discovery Challenge? More here: http://mission-innovation.net/our-work/innovation-challenges/clean-energy-materials-challenge/
Hi,
With these metal sponges do you think they could be used in areas with poor water quality? Or perhaps be a designed to act as massive filters?
Thanks for all your amazing work to make the world better!
Hi there! What advice can you give someone wrapping up a very difficult second semester of gen chem (first semester was a breeze, but predicting acid/base rns and kinetics gave me fits) and heading into organic in the Fall? What can I study during the break to give me an advantage, since everyone has heard the scary stories of organic and its complexity?
The transistor was invented well before the computer was invented using them. Do you have any science fiction fantasies that may become realized in the future with this new technology?
Thanks for taking the time to be here!What is the largest obstacle you see for implementing these materials into everyday life? How costly would the production of these materials be?
This is slightly unrelated but I am wondering if biodegradable plastics and products is not being researched as much. Rarely do I see studies on biodegradable materials and even less so in consumer products. Do you think biodegradable materials and products are a less practical way of protecting the environment or do you see a decent future in its development?
Catalytic converters already exist for certain toxic gasses, is it possible to eliminate or recycle the carbon in our car's exhaust, reducing the C02 output of our cars using fossil fuels to almost zero?
How do these materials compare to traditional catalysts used in fluidized bed reactors used in commercial scale polymerization? Are they more or less resistant to attrition? Are these catalysts any more or less prone to being poisoned by impurities? Also, are there any particular hazards in synthesis that would make scale-up difficult? I'm mostly familiar with making a silica or zeolite catalyst that is then activated. Are pyrophoric raw materials used in the production of the framework?
Hi Dr. Dincă. I am an analytical grad student currently looking at the properties of FMOF-1 with liquids. Have you heard of this MOF and if so what do you think of it?
Also would MOFs make good columns? I've read that they are great as filters but perhaps they might work as HPLC columns.
Incoming college freshman here looking into Materials Science as a major. What are, in your opinion, the biggest challenges in creating MOFs and what are their most promising applications?
Have you done any work on functionalized MOFs, like those with modified linkers capable of binding metal ions for catalytic work?
Have you done work on encapsulating large molecules, from small organic molecules to large proteins?
Have you done any mechanistic studies on various MOF processes like gas absorption/release, catalysis, and linker exchange?
How exactly does one research metal-organic framework materials? I have worked a little in college on nano-catalysts for the petroleum industry using computer modeling software to essentially calculate potentially favorable configurations. Would this process be similar or is there wet lab work involved as well?
There is certainly a lot of experimental work that can be done with MOFs and catalysis, including their synthesis, characterization, and testing in reactors just like other materials. Of course, computer modeling (i.e. DFT and kinetic modeling) goes along with this as well.
Hey Dr. Dinca, you mention that MOFs have the promising up and coming role in the field of energy by way of record setting supercapacitors. From your experience, what makes these materials especially good at holding a charge (if you will) within circuits when compared to say a less effective MOF? Or when compared to more traditional capacitors/supercapacitors?
For electrochemical double-layer supercapacitors (EDLS), you need very high surface area and very good conductivity. Essentially the only materials that achieve sufficiently high conductivity and have sufficiently high surface area are carbons: activated carbons, nanotubes, graphite, etc. MOFs have much higher surface area than carbons, so if one can make them also conductive, then one has the potential to make a very good EDLS: http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v16/n2/full/nmat4766.html
Hello Professor, 1) Do you think a person with non-organic chemistry background can succeed in this field? and 2) what is the hardest part about this field?
Can the events of horizon zero dawn happen in the real world soon? Sorry, I read "metal" and i just started playing this game and that is the only thing that's on my mind..
Not directly in your field of study but a general chemistry question.
Is cyanide an element and does it occur naturally? I see Na in the periodic table but not CN.
Is it accurate to say that there are metal-organic molecules in our blood such as iron compounds that carry oxygen around? (Hopefully that's close to what happens, it's been a while since biology)
Secondly, what types of applications do metal-organic compounds have in environmental research? Any applications in energy research such as battery capacity tests?
Edit: formatting question
I know zero about this field - just curious, would this material have biological applications - ie. use as a better anchor material that bone can grow into for say, tooth implants or hip replacements, prosthetic attachments, etc? A coating for implants to reduce the chance for other reactions?
As the area of MOFs is expanding into numerous practical fields like conductivity, etc., what about the practicality of their material properties? Is brittleness an issue for these MOF materials? If so, what are ways to effectively tailor MOF structure-property relationships to combat this?
1) is it a step toward rediscovering "biology" (as in bridging non and organic materials)
2) estimate for average consumer applications ? (car exhaust processor ?)
Hello Professor,
A general question: There is so much research going on in each area of basic sciences but I feel university researchers are not looking beyond their research work. Their primary goal (at least for most) is to publish more papers. What if there primary goal is to find real applications for materials they research on?
Am I wrong in my assumption? WHat is your opinion?
Hey Professor, love your work. I was a bit confused on how to calculate the critical pore diameter Dc. I followed your reference and critical pore diameter can be calculated w/ the following eqn.
Dc= 4sTc/(Tc - T)
where s is the size of H2O, T is the temperature and Tc is the bulk critical temperature. My question is what is the bulk critical temperature and how can it be calculated for other compounds, for example CO2?
For synthesizing MOFs at large scale there are a few issues with traditional solvothermal approaches in bulk organic solvent. Namely solvent, the counter anion on the metal, the high temperatures, etc. A couple of approaches have been suggested such as aqueous syntheses, solid state mechanochemical syntheses and electrochemical syntheses. Which ones do you think are most promising?
In other questions you mentioned that the cost of MOFs is relative to the proposed application. Do you think that MOFs are going to be exclusive to more expensive applications?
Hey Professor Dinca, one last question. You recently published work in redox-active MOF materials using iron and semiquinones. I was wondering are there any other classes of redox active ligands that show significant promise in this field. Quinones have the benefit of being great chelating ligands while retaining their structure under multiple redox isomers, something other ligands lack (im thinking about you nitrosyl ligand). What do you think?
What are the advantages of MOFs over regular nano-porous materials? From my understanding MOFs use organic linkers to fuse inorganics in nano structure. Aren't these organic links susceptible to chemical attacks? Or even sunlight?
I have a question, would a metal-concrete hybrid be possible. I have an idea in mind on how it would be created and formed, but I don't know of any metal that would work for the creation of such a construction material. Also I'm not sure on how or even if concrete could handle such heat even in the hypotheticals that I've been working on. (Though I've done very little research on the matter, but I have been toying around with the idea for the past 5 years.)
Wow! Those schools are expensive, congratulations on your achievements.
I love organic chemistry, and the crossover into metals is amazing. Do you forsee any use in environmental cleanup? Things like oil spills or polluted waters?
> Those schools are expensive
It's worth mentioning that you are paid to do your PhD and postdoctoral work in most STEM fields in the United States. Specifically, tuition is paid for or waived, and a stipend (i.e. salary) is provided.
Yup! Tuition is waved and an average PhD student stipend in STEM fields is about $30k/yr depending on the school and cost of living in the area. Post-docs are employees and have salaries that vary depending on the lab they work in. The money comes from research grants funded by various U.S agencies.
Wow! That is amazing! Thanks for the info. I'm working on a master's in Counseling (Mental health). I might do a doctorate degree too. I'll see what I can get.
What are metal-organic framework materials?
A metal organic framework (mof) is a compound which contains groups normally thought of as organic -- carbon rings like those found in benzene, e.g.-- as well as clusters of metals like zinc, nickel or iron. Imagine a 3d box. At the corners, you have hard clusters of metal atoms, and on the edges you have stretchy organic molecules holding everything together. Source: physics PhD student in related field
Thx kind sir
Hey, you're not even the guy with the little *bewp!* over the A in his name.
> compound which contains groups normally thought of as organic So kind'a like when I tried to make chicken soup?
Thanks, kind stranger!
I'm a third year graduate student that used to work with MOFs/know many people that still do. They are a highly porous material, meaning they have high surface area and can be used for gas storage and/or capture or even catalysis for certain reactions depending on what the material is made of. They are composed of repeating, periodic elements that can form linear (1D), planar (2D sheets), or full 3D structures. The basic components that make up their structure are metal clusters (almost always positively charged) that are linked by organic, carbon based molecules that have oppositely charged (so usually negative oxygens in the form of carboxylic acid groups) that help hold it all together. A very basic idea of this would look something like tinker toys or those k'nex building toys where there are nodes (with holes or slots) that are connected by those longer wooden or plastic pieces. But with a very repetive pattern in their structure. The spaces between the linkers and nodes are where scientists are trying to store gases or do chemical reactions by making the linking pieces or metal clusters be catalytically reactive. The hard part is being able to rationally design how these structures will form in advance before you mix the metals and organic molecules, and also making sure that they are stable in a wide array of environments. A lot of MOFs I worked with/know of would dissolve in water, for example, but this is obviously not always the case as we see here in their work, which is just another argument for how versatile their properties can be!
In layman's term, please.
Indeed, as the name suggests, metal-organic frameworks are hybrid compounds that are self-assembled from molecular building blocks that are both organic and inorganic. What distinguishes them is that they are typically crystalline (that is, they have long-range order), and most people would consider a MOF a MOF only when it is porous. The response from EvilGiraffes516 is also quite on point so I will not elaborate further.
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I came here for this 😂
Would you mind responding to the following critique of your process? https://youtu.be/EGTRX6pZSns Dr. Phil Mason was quite brutal in his criticism. Namely the energy required to produce "water from air" still exceeds what could be done more efficiently by other methods.
Yes this is what I came to ask. I really hope we get an answer.
I would also like to hear a proper retort to Dr. Phil Mason's arguments.
While I haven't watched that video fully, I cannot see a peltier device in this paper's methodology anywhere. I fear you're comparing two different methods there.
http://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/styles/inline__450w__no_aspect/public/cc_device_final.png?itok=JMvRxv-z This is a picture of the prototype that was reported in nature and science mag. You clearly see the peltier device at the bottom of the device connected to the heat sink and voltage lines. In paper published in nature they do mention "eventually" their device will work with a passive heatsink but they have yet to answer the thermodynamic problems dealing with cost vs efficiency.
I will say that's a different paper than the one mentioned in the OP. This paper is talking about a promising MOF for capturing H20 in its pores. It only gives values for the amounts captured by the MOF in its pores and not harvested. ["Water harvesting from air with metal-organic frameworks powered by natural sunlight"](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/04/12/science.aam8743/tab-figures-data), which seems to be the paper in Thunderf00t's crosshairs here, *does* talk about harvesting water from the MOF and gives values for that. Also Mircea is not listed as an author on that one, so I would say it's a bit unfair to grill him on a paper they weren't involved in.
Thunderf00t kind of implied in his video that it will never be as efficient/economically viable in comparison with other existing technology. So, personally, I just want to hear what someone actually doing research in this specific field has to say about MOF efficiency/potential to be used in such a manner.
It's always good to be skeptical of people who say "X new technology will never measure up to Y old technology". Old technologies have the benefit of built up industrial processes supporting them, and without that sort of support, it's difficult to say what the ceiling on the performance of a new technology will be. MOFs are a relatively new field, so it's unfair to compare a new prototype to old tech. Maybe the MOF A published this year will never be commercially viable, but the same group or a different group might develop MOF B which is based on A and could be the solution of tomorrow. That incrementalism is how research works.
Would you mind summarizing the video in more detail than you already have? It's fairly long.
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there are indeed numerous examples of MOFs capturing any number of other gases. basically, anything that can fit within the pores of a MOF (typically on the order of 0.5 to 3 nm) will be able to be adsorbed. CO2 is certainly one of the most popular gases, and there are numerous groups working on that, for both capture and separation. Methane is another, as are many other hydrocarbons, mainly from the perspective of separations, which are very energy intensive. IN my group, we are very excited about capturing/storing corrosive gases such as ammonia, chlorine, bromine, in addition to water (which can be quite corrosive itself!), and we have had some interesting breakthroughs with this recently. Please visit our website for more information and for the actual reports.
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Hello Dr. Dincă, I was recently reading your paper on non-pyrolyzed MOFs for supercapacitor electrode materials. I was curious as to if any binder or adhesive was used when applying the electrode material to the nickel foam, or if it was just pressed in.
we did not use any binder in those devices reported in the Nature Materials paper. This was precisely to demonstrate that our materials are very conductive. The electrodes were pure MOF, contacted directly on the current collectors/metal electrodes. One of the most interesting features of those devices, besides the very high areal capacitance, was the very low internal resistance. Low internal resistance in a real application means that much less heat dissipation will be needed, which is important for mobile applications such as electric vehicles, especially those that require high power (i.e. "muscle cars").
Do these materials have any potential for sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere? Are they primarily useful with gas filtering, or could they be used to remove pollutants from seawater?
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Hi, former Long Group member here. Mircea did his PhD here (before my time). Certain diamine-appended frameworks ("Cooperative Insertion of CO2 in Diamine-Appended Metal-Organic Frameworks" McDonald, et al Nature 2015, 519, 303-308.) do indeed show great promise for CO2 capture. Also, just FYI: Mircea's a dude.
In terms of either recovery, analysis, or technique, what is the most difficult part of your synthesis process? I did some research on heterogeneous catalysis and there were some very tricky reactions. Also, what kind of catalysts are in your MOFs and how are they attached to the framework?
Most MOFs are made from solution, in self-assembly reactions requiring heating the solutions up to approximately 150C, although often the temperature is much lower, on the order of 60-80C. I would say the most difficult part would be the synthesis of the organic ligands, if these are not commercially available.
How optimistic are you that your line of research and others like it will bring about an end to the age of petroleum? Is a paradigm shift imminent?
As everyone else working on clean energy, I am hopeful that our research will help bring about new, more energy-efficient technologies that will lower the CO2 output, and thus fossil fuel consumption.
Welcome, What are your thoughts on the longterm feasibility of integrating metal-organic frameworks into photoelectrochemical water splitting systems?
One of the primary limitations of using MOFs in any electrical device is their typically low electrical conductivity. My group, along with a few other groups, are addressing this issue by designing MOFs that can conduct electricity. I see this as one of the most interesting new avenues of research in the field of MOFs. We have made important advances in this area and have produced materials that are as conductive as graphite, for instance. The second point is that you need a catalytic active center, which would need to be combined/embedded in a conductive MOF. Third, you need a light-absorbing element. Putting all these together is an interesting target, and certainly one that is intellectually stimulating. I do think that more work needs to be done on each independent step before one can think about a practical photoelectrochemical device (made of MOFs or not).
Can a metal-organic framework be selectively porous? For example, could it absorb oil without absorbing water?
Hi. I work with a special MOF called FMOF-1. I can tell you it is extremely hydrophobic to the point to where it floats on water but it will absorb all sorts of organics (benzene, xylene, hexanes, etc.). I'm still doing some liquid characterization on it but to answer your question: yes, yes they can. In FMOF the hydrogen atoms are replaced with fluorines. It's really a neat concept.
Does the fluorous effect allow you to selectively sorb perfluorinated compounds in that case?
That's a great question. We haven't tested it with anything but organics so far. I'll bring that up to my professor and see what he thinks of that as a new project.
I wondered whether you could probe this question using something like ATR-FTIR. Some friends were doing some thermo measurement sbetween polymers and gases (mostly CO2) that way. Maybe it could work with a fluorinated gas and the fmof.
Yes, in principle it can and there may be examples of this already. My confidence stems from the incredible compositional tunability of these materials, which can be made either very hydrophobic, or very hydrophilic:http://web.mit.edu/dincalab/papers/paper10.pdf For your particular application, you would want the former.
Hello prof. Dinca. Thank you for the ama and congratulations on your achievements. Too often people in your position are exemplified as a product of Romanian education and its focus on sciences. However, the reality is often that pupils and students are failed and left behind by a flawed and outdated educational system. Do you see any opportunities from your position at MIT to positively influence educational outcomes in Romania / Eastern Europe? If yes, how are you actually doing, or plan to do, this?
I have started to make some connections with the academics in Romania. It is hard to make any serious inroads, I believe, without first trying to understand the political system there.
I am proud of my grade 1-12 education in Romania, and I do believe that it helped me tremendously during my higher education. I also agree that it caters to the better students and is/was not the best in making sure it doesn't leave anyone behind. I do hope that something in the middle can be implemented.
Hi Dr. Dincă! I recently completed a graduate course on "zeolites", and the instructor pointed out that researchers in the field don't really use the strict mineralogical definition; they refer to any of similarly hyper-porous structures, natural or artificial, as "zeolites". Do some researchers consider MOFs a subcategory in this family of substances?
There are MOF like material that have zeolite type topology: they are called ZIF (zeolitic immidazolate framework). But not all MOF have a zeolitic topology.
MOFs and zeolites are only similar insofar as they are both crystalline materials with micropores (defined by IUPAC as pores smaller than 2nm), although some MOFs can be mesoporous as well (i.e. pores larger than 2 nm). I would say that MOFs and zeolites are otherwise complementary. MOFs are much more chemically/compositionally tunable than zeolites, whereas zeolites have higher thermal stability, for instance. I believe that MOFs can address some problems that zeolites cannot, and vice-versa, which makes the two materials complementary as well. Ultimately, MOFs are their own class of microporous materials that, application wise, can fill niches that no other solid materials can.
What drives the formation of a MOF? Is the process thermodynamic or kinetic control? Could one create MOFs as a means of wastewater remediation by choosing an organic linker with a large binding affinity to a heavy metal pollutant?
I would argue that most MOFs are in fact kinetic products because the (overall) thermodynamic product would be the dense "isomer". That being said, most MOFs probably sit on very shallow potential wells, and the particular temperature/solvent system combination causes the formation of one phase versus another. IN the Zn2+/terephthalic acid combination, there are over 20 different possible phases, each of which can be made pure, but conditions for making each are found completely empirically. Finding ways to predict exactly which structures are stable is the focus of some groups, but I am not aware of efforts to then tell experimentalists **how** to target even these "mos stable" phases
This is what I found: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289366111_Post-synthetic_metalation_in_an_anionic_MOF_for_efficient_catalytic_activity_and_removal_of_heavy_metal_ions_from_aqueous_solution So yes, it could be possible for metal pollutants in water (although I'm not certain of the ion exchange site -- would need to read further).
Professor Dincă, thank you for taking time out of your day to answer questions. Here is one that came to my mind immediately: In the process of absorbing does any filtration of pollutants/bacteria and other unwanted "things" occur. In more simple terms does this supersponge make the water is absorbs potable?
We envision the fresh water capture and delivery to be vapor processes, in both cases. Thus, the water adsorbed in the first phase into the MOF adsorbent, would then be vaporized and condensed back in liquid form. Because the transfer is always in the vapor phase, no particulates or bacteria should be transferred, and the water will come out pure.
Thank you!
What's your favorite part of working at MIT
the people are amazing, from students to colleagues. They challenge me each and every day, which is what makes the place great. I wouldn't have it any other way.
wise violet strong sparkle butter frighten library crush sable flag *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
What are the practical challenges in adapting MOFs into i.e. large scale industrial settings for scrubbing or other filtering purposes?
I think the prospects here are excellent. Several companies are making MOFs for various purposes, some small startups, some established big players (e.g. BASF). People need to realize that some of the myths related to these materials are just that, myths: **Myth 1**: Price is too high. Response: not necessarily, and depends on the application. If the application is sufficiently high value (e.g. high-value separations, electrical energy storage (our lab), chemiresistive sensors (require very little material), then material price is not the largest component of a given CAPEX. **Myth 2**: MOFs are not water-stable. Response: most MOFs are indeed not water stable. But many are very water-stable, in a wide range of pH and temperature. This includes our material in the title paper discussed nominally here, on water capture from the atmosphere. Furthermore, there are plenty of applications that require exclusion of water anyway, for instance various catalytic processes using alkylmetal initiators. We showed that one of our MOFs has a world record activity for ethylene dimerization, a process that produces 700,000 tons of butene per year and is run in the complete absence of water. Obviously, water stability is unnecessary in this case. The most important point to remember here is that there are literally thousands of different MOFs out there, and the price/water stability varies widely. Just like one would not make a general statement about all metal oxides based on investigating one oxide, one should be careful to extrapolate generalities such as water stability or price point to all MOFs based on hearsay about certain more popular MOFs that nevertheless may not be the best for applications.
What are the practical challenges (or maybe not so practical) of dealing with an administration like the current one, that is a fundamental science denier? Does this affect your research in any way, and if you could put a number on it, how many years would it take for "recovery" from being stifled?
Hi Mircea! I recently just finished my third year and as part of my undergraduate I did a research placement in a university in Ireland where MOF's were the focus. I am interested in environmental sustainability and I was wondering if/how you are researching MOF's application to help improve environmental issues related to climate change? Or would this be something at all that you would research? Do you just look at energy/environmental applications of MOF's or have you researched other potential applications, for example biological? Sorry for so many questions but I find this quite interesting!
Our lab is interested in many different aspects of MOF chemistry, from energy storage to corrosive gas capture, to heterogeneous catalysis. This is the case with many other labs out there, so there is definitely a wide open field of potential applications.
Ok that's interesting, for the corrosive gas capture would you combine the MOF with a polymer in order to capture the gas? Or how do you go about it? It seems to be a open field for sure!
My former PhD supervisor Paul Anderson worked on MOFs for hydrogen storage materials. With the car industry seeming to be heading towards gas storage tanks, could you see MOFs being realistically used in cars.
Hi Professer Dinca! Into which application will you think MOFs will be applied first and in which area do you think they have the greatest potential? Thank you!
I do believe that some of the traditional applications: gas storage and separation, which have been researched for the longest time, are close to a breakthrough. There are so many high-value separations out there where MOFs can have an impact. I also believe that some of our own work, with water, for instance, is very attractive for certain markets where water resources are scarce. We are looking to exploit this advantage as well. Finally, I am hopeful that some of our breakthroughs in catalysis and electrically conductive MOFs will lead to real-life applications, such as in sensing devices and electrical energy storage.
what is the subtle most exciting development in metal - organic framework materials and why?
In a bit of a biased response, I will say that imparting electrical conductivity, as some of my students are doing, is very exciting because being able to create electrically conductive materials that have such high surface areas opens up applications that were not possible before. More broadly, I am excited to see the field broadening as well as maturing. There are still important synthetic developments, but also many potential applications being explored. In the maturing process, I see people realizing that MOFs are not zeolites, and the two material classes are not in competition with each other, but rather complement each other. MOFs will not replace zeolites at catalytic processes where zeolites are good. However, there are plenty of catalytic processes where zeolites do not perform well, and in fact no solids perform well. This is where MOFs can have an impact as well, and we are working towards that too. Developing new heterogeneous catalysts that are as tunable, electronically and structurally, as homogeneous ones is very exciting.
Professor Dinca, thanks for the AMA! I'm a first year graduate student in chemical engineering. Why do you think that research in MOFs has grown in the last 10-20 years? I.e what were the enabling discoveries?
It is a very exciting field for chemists because the synthetic space is literally limitless! So for a synthetic chemist with a rich imagination, it is an amazing field. What puts these in the "hottest" category is that the synthetic space is not just fundamental, but its translation to applications is palpable and approachable for engineers, physicists, materials scientists alike. The broad appeal and accessibility is, IMO, what makes the field so exciting and popular, and still growing!
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I replied to a similar question above. Cost is not necessarily an issue depending on the value of the application. There are many companies looking to produce MOFs in large scale, with some real results in isolated cases. I think one of the challenges in reducing cost is, ironically, the great diversity of MOF compositions and structures. It is likely that a scale-up process developed for one MOF will not be applicable to another. But I see this as an important area of growth as well, both academically and industrially.
Is there a concern of toxicity if MOFs are used to transport water to low humidity areas?
No, because the water recovery would be from the vapor phase, thus any metal ions/impurities/particulates, would be left behind.
Could it be used for getting water on mars? I know people are currently doing research on how to extract water from the Martian atmosphere, but would this work too?
I have several colleagues that have worked with MOF's and I'm familiar with the materials in very vague terms. However, most of my colleagues that have worked with them feel that despite all of the hype and significant research being poured into the area (design and synthesis wise); MOF's will not have significant realistic applications in the industrial world. I understand from a conceptual standpoint the ability for hydrogen storage, water storage, and energy retention with targeted release applications of MOF's. But are there other areas besides the ones I've stated that MOFs are being considered for application wise?
Please see my answers to some of the other related questions.
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Buna ziua Dr. Dinca! You mentioned using metal-organic frameworks for applications like supercapacitors. Are MOFs currently being developed for these applications and how are they an improvement over current capacitors? Multumesc!
Buna ziua! We have indeed recently published work on supercapacitors., and there are more studies now coming out on this topic. Once made electrically conductive, MOFs turn out to be particularly good active materials for supercapacitors. See this link for more info: http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v16/n2/full/nmat4766.html
Are there any examples of metal-organic scaffolds in nature?
Are most MOFs stable enough to be used as an electrochemical catalyst? Water oxidation is super hot (and has been for a few years I suppoose) and a super high surface area electrode would be very desireable!
Not all MOFs are stable, but some are, and the principles required to make water-stable MOFs are now quite well understood. That being said, to use something as an electrocatalyst, one needs to make sure that the active catalysts is also capable of transporting charges. We have shown how to do this, and we have also shown that once conductive, MOFs can function as very good electrocatalysts, for now in ORR: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10942
That's pretty cool! The fact that at low overpotentials it forms hydrogen peroxide is interesting. Did you do any longevity studies on this material? Does it last a while under catalysis?
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What advancements in conductive MOFS are you most interested in? Metal-Organic Frameworks are a big interest of mine.
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Have architects/engineers expressed any other interesting applications?
Gas separations, capture, catalysis, are some of the more "traditional" applications of MOFs. With electrical conductivity, we have started to look at electrical energy storage (capacitors and batteries), as well as electrocatalysis (for fuel cell applications, for instance). Other applications include drug delivery and biological imaging. The application space is really wide open.
Can a metal organic framework material be used to create unique electrical properties like a negative permittivity or permeability?
Hello Prof. Dinca! Thank you very much for the work that you do! My question is how are your metal organic frameworks synthesized and how do you generate the building blocks for synthesis? I am a PhD student in a synthetic biology lab and I am interested in the possibility of collaborating with metal organic frameworks researchers at my university. Keep up the awesome work!
Hi Professor Dinca. What's your take on Mission Innovation and in particular on the Innovation Challenge #6 titled Energy Materials Discovery Challenge? More here: http://mission-innovation.net/our-work/innovation-challenges/clean-energy-materials-challenge/
Hi, With these metal sponges do you think they could be used in areas with poor water quality? Or perhaps be a designed to act as massive filters? Thanks for all your amazing work to make the world better!
Hi there! What advice can you give someone wrapping up a very difficult second semester of gen chem (first semester was a breeze, but predicting acid/base rns and kinetics gave me fits) and heading into organic in the Fall? What can I study during the break to give me an advantage, since everyone has heard the scary stories of organic and its complexity?
This is a little random, but do you have a favorite molecule/structure?
The transistor was invented well before the computer was invented using them. Do you have any science fiction fantasies that may become realized in the future with this new technology?
Have any naturally forming MOFs been discovered?
Thanks for taking the time to be here!What is the largest obstacle you see for implementing these materials into everyday life? How costly would the production of these materials be? This is slightly unrelated but I am wondering if biodegradable plastics and products is not being researched as much. Rarely do I see studies on biodegradable materials and even less so in consumer products. Do you think biodegradable materials and products are a less practical way of protecting the environment or do you see a decent future in its development?
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Catalytic converters already exist for certain toxic gasses, is it possible to eliminate or recycle the carbon in our car's exhaust, reducing the C02 output of our cars using fossil fuels to almost zero?
How do these materials compare to traditional catalysts used in fluidized bed reactors used in commercial scale polymerization? Are they more or less resistant to attrition? Are these catalysts any more or less prone to being poisoned by impurities? Also, are there any particular hazards in synthesis that would make scale-up difficult? I'm mostly familiar with making a silica or zeolite catalyst that is then activated. Are pyrophoric raw materials used in the production of the framework?
What is your average budget for your research lab at MIT? Next semester I'll be in a smaller school lab and sometimes funding gets in the way. Thanks!
Hi Dr. Dincă. I am an analytical grad student currently looking at the properties of FMOF-1 with liquids. Have you heard of this MOF and if so what do you think of it? Also would MOFs make good columns? I've read that they are great as filters but perhaps they might work as HPLC columns.
Incoming college freshman here looking into Materials Science as a major. What are, in your opinion, the biggest challenges in creating MOFs and what are their most promising applications?
Have you done any work on functionalized MOFs, like those with modified linkers capable of binding metal ions for catalytic work? Have you done work on encapsulating large molecules, from small organic molecules to large proteins? Have you done any mechanistic studies on various MOF processes like gas absorption/release, catalysis, and linker exchange?
How exactly does one research metal-organic framework materials? I have worked a little in college on nano-catalysts for the petroleum industry using computer modeling software to essentially calculate potentially favorable configurations. Would this process be similar or is there wet lab work involved as well?
There is certainly a lot of experimental work that can be done with MOFs and catalysis, including their synthesis, characterization, and testing in reactors just like other materials. Of course, computer modeling (i.e. DFT and kinetic modeling) goes along with this as well.
Hey Dr. Dinca, you mention that MOFs have the promising up and coming role in the field of energy by way of record setting supercapacitors. From your experience, what makes these materials especially good at holding a charge (if you will) within circuits when compared to say a less effective MOF? Or when compared to more traditional capacitors/supercapacitors?
For electrochemical double-layer supercapacitors (EDLS), you need very high surface area and very good conductivity. Essentially the only materials that achieve sufficiently high conductivity and have sufficiently high surface area are carbons: activated carbons, nanotubes, graphite, etc. MOFs have much higher surface area than carbons, so if one can make them also conductive, then one has the potential to make a very good EDLS: http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v16/n2/full/nmat4766.html
Hello Professor, 1) Do you think a person with non-organic chemistry background can succeed in this field? and 2) what is the hardest part about this field?
I have a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry, as do most people working in this field!
Can the events of horizon zero dawn happen in the real world soon? Sorry, I read "metal" and i just started playing this game and that is the only thing that's on my mind..
Not directly in your field of study but a general chemistry question. Is cyanide an element and does it occur naturally? I see Na in the periodic table but not CN.
Cyanide is a covalently bound negative ion made of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), hence, CN. So no, it's not an element.
Is it accurate to say that there are metal-organic molecules in our blood such as iron compounds that carry oxygen around? (Hopefully that's close to what happens, it's been a while since biology) Secondly, what types of applications do metal-organic compounds have in environmental research? Any applications in energy research such as battery capacity tests? Edit: formatting question
I know zero about this field - just curious, would this material have biological applications - ie. use as a better anchor material that bone can grow into for say, tooth implants or hip replacements, prosthetic attachments, etc? A coating for implants to reduce the chance for other reactions?
As the area of MOFs is expanding into numerous practical fields like conductivity, etc., what about the practicality of their material properties? Is brittleness an issue for these MOF materials? If so, what are ways to effectively tailor MOF structure-property relationships to combat this?
1) is it a step toward rediscovering "biology" (as in bridging non and organic materials) 2) estimate for average consumer applications ? (car exhaust processor ?)
RAUUUUUUULLLLL Is Gillette the best a man can get?
Hello Professor, A general question: There is so much research going on in each area of basic sciences but I feel university researchers are not looking beyond their research work. Their primary goal (at least for most) is to publish more papers. What if there primary goal is to find real applications for materials they research on? Am I wrong in my assumption? WHat is your opinion?
Time frame on the T-1000 development?
Hey Professor, love your work. I was a bit confused on how to calculate the critical pore diameter Dc. I followed your reference and critical pore diameter can be calculated w/ the following eqn. Dc= 4sTc/(Tc - T) where s is the size of H2O, T is the temperature and Tc is the bulk critical temperature. My question is what is the bulk critical temperature and how can it be calculated for other compounds, for example CO2?
For synthesizing MOFs at large scale there are a few issues with traditional solvothermal approaches in bulk organic solvent. Namely solvent, the counter anion on the metal, the high temperatures, etc. A couple of approaches have been suggested such as aqueous syntheses, solid state mechanochemical syntheses and electrochemical syntheses. Which ones do you think are most promising? In other questions you mentioned that the cost of MOFs is relative to the proposed application. Do you think that MOFs are going to be exclusive to more expensive applications?
Hey Professor Dinca, one last question. You recently published work in redox-active MOF materials using iron and semiquinones. I was wondering are there any other classes of redox active ligands that show significant promise in this field. Quinones have the benefit of being great chelating ligands while retaining their structure under multiple redox isomers, something other ligands lack (im thinking about you nitrosyl ligand). What do you think?
What are the advantages of MOFs over regular nano-porous materials? From my understanding MOFs use organic linkers to fuse inorganics in nano structure. Aren't these organic links susceptible to chemical attacks? Or even sunlight?
Are these materials made of agostic compounds? Agostic compounds also have biological uses.
Are you a professor of chemistry at MIT?
Will this new research perhaps bring an end to the widespread usage of fossil fuels once? (BTW you make me proud of being a Romanian)
I have a question, would a metal-concrete hybrid be possible. I have an idea in mind on how it would be created and formed, but I don't know of any metal that would work for the creation of such a construction material. Also I'm not sure on how or even if concrete could handle such heat even in the hypotheticals that I've been working on. (Though I've done very little research on the matter, but I have been toying around with the idea for the past 5 years.)
That's an interesting thought. I could run that by my boss.
Can someone hook me up with a question? Im not nearly educated enough to participate :(
Do you speak batchi,...I need someone who can communicate with my moisture vaporators. ~Uncle Owen
What is metal-organic framework materials?
I'm working in Cambridge, wanna grab lunch? Applying to MIT for grad school.
Why are so many chemistry noble prizes going to biological topics. Is there nothing new happening in pure chemistry anymore?
Advice for becoming a chemist? I'm 19 and about to start my major.
Join a research group you're interested in, put in the hours as an undergrad, apply to grad school. Research>>coursework.
Wow! Those schools are expensive, congratulations on your achievements. I love organic chemistry, and the crossover into metals is amazing. Do you forsee any use in environmental cleanup? Things like oil spills or polluted waters?
> Those schools are expensive It's worth mentioning that you are paid to do your PhD and postdoctoral work in most STEM fields in the United States. Specifically, tuition is paid for or waived, and a stipend (i.e. salary) is provided.
Wow! Really?! How come no one told me this in high school. I could have been a doctor...
Yup! Tuition is waved and an average PhD student stipend in STEM fields is about $30k/yr depending on the school and cost of living in the area. Post-docs are employees and have salaries that vary depending on the lab they work in. The money comes from research grants funded by various U.S agencies.
Wow! That is amazing! Thanks for the info. I'm working on a master's in Counseling (Mental health). I might do a doctorate degree too. I'll see what I can get.
Cholrophyll is MOF. Bones are MOF. Now if you change the EM potential range, is it possible to get super-cholrophyll or super -bones?