MOFCAT

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: MOFs may display extreme porosity and surface areas, and their functionalities can be tailored.

The project aims at developing reproducible and scalable synthesis procedures for known and new MOFs, and also exploiting combinatorial techniques. We want, at the molecular level, to understand the interactions governing their stability, self-assembly and adsorption properties, by means of combined experimental and theoretical modelling efforts. New routes for functionalisation to create MOF-based single-site catalysts for two emerging industrial processes will be developed and the functionalised MOFs will be exploited as catalysts in emerging industrial processes as well as more future processes such as Pt-functionalised MOFs as catalysts for C-H activation at moderate conditions. In addition, the adsorption and storage properties of selected MOFs for non-condensable gases such as hydrogen and methane will be examined.

The work packages of the project comprise the synthesis, characterisation, modelling, and testing of the materials, as well as a technology implementation plan for their production and use.