RESTRAIN

The groundbreaking work that led to the emergence of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) represents a major milestone in the design of materials with controlled atomic or molecular architectures. MOFs are organic-inorganic crystalline materials; they have attracted particular attention owing to their tremendously high surface area and tunable pore size, properties that make them ideal candidates for applications including gas storage, separation, and catalysis.

Notwithstanding tremendous research efforts, MOF development is held back by the difficulty of producing large MOF solids. The small crystal size significantly limits MOF-based materials’ applicability in, e.g., gas purification or filtration.

The RESTRAIN project is a collaboration between the Shahgaldian group and the de Roo group (Department of Chemistry, University of Basel). It aims at tackling the main limitations of 2D and 3D MOFs related to in-situ SBU production. We shall develop a novel approach to reticular chemistry for 2D MOF design.

This project is financially supported by the Swiss Nanoscience Institute through the SNI PhD program.