Víctor Rubio’s Chem. Mater. paper reports on the controllable doping of Ni-MOF-74 with Fe to produce a MOF material which combines porosity and ferrimagnetic ordering. This validates metal doping as a useful strategy to modify the magnetism of other archetypical families of MOFs. For more info see here

José Navarro’s work has just been published in JACS. In collaboration with the MINOLTA team at UVEG we report the first example of a MOF capable of separating chiral polar drugs. Cu- GlyHisGly is capable of separating more than 50% of the (+)-ephedrine enantiomer from a racemic mixture in only.

In collaboration with E. Pardo’s group at ICMol, this work highlights the potential of flexible MOFs incorporating amino acids to enable efficient removal of mercury from solution. This porous solid displays an adaptable response reminiscent of that responsible for the biological activity of the enzyme mercuric reductase.

Victor Rubio’s JACS paper reports on the use of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) to enable the fabrication of highly oriented, ultrathin MOF films across millimetre-scale areas. Electrical conductivity was studied with Hg-drop electrometry. This strategy might be useful for the integration of MOFs as active interfaces in electronic devices.

Neyvis Almora-Barrios is original from La Havana, Cuba, and earned her Ph.D. in 2010, working in the group of Prof. Nora de Leeuw at the University College of London, UK. She next joined Prof. Nuria López’s group at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ). She will be in charge of computational modelling to study structure-properties relationships in the porous materials developed @Funimat

Belen is Valencia born and bred. She earned a degree (2016) and Master (2017) in Chemistry at the Universidad de Valencia and now joins the team as PhD Student. Her research will focus on the development of high-throughput methodologies for the synthesis of biomimetic MOFs that feature high-stability and increasing pore complexity

Natalia is originally from Granada and completed her PhD in the Universidad of Granada in 2016 under the supervision of Jorge A. Rodriguez Navarro and Enrique Oltra. She will be working on the synthesis of non-conventional MOF-forming linkers.

Gokhan is originally from Turkey and completed his BSc. In Chemical Engineering from the University of Bogazici in 2005. He enrols the team as a Master Student and will be working on the nanostructuration of layered MOFs on solid substrates.

Funimat was present at the International Symposium on Composites of Metal and Covalent Organic Frameworks held in Granada. Carlos delivered a keynote lecture on ‘Charge Transport in Ultrathin films of Metal-Organic Framewors’. For more details see here.

Funimat was present at the 6th European Conference in Molecular Magnetism held in Bucharest. Carlos delivered an invited talk on ‘Ultrathin films of layered coordination polymers: charge transport and spin-crossover at the nanoscale’. For more details see here.

Natalia and Belen have recently been awarded a Juan de La Cierva Formación Fellowship and FPU Scholarship, respectively. These are quite competitive calls funded by the Spanish MINECO that highlight their excellent scientific and academic performance. Congratulations!

Funimat was present at the XXXVI Bienal de la Real Sociedad Española de Química held in Sitges. Carlos and Victor delivered keynote and flash presentations at the MOF symposium highlighting most recent results of the team in ‘Peptide-based porous materials’ and ‘Conductive ultrathin MOF films’. For more details see here.

The European Research Council has awarded an ERC Starting Grant to Carlos. The money will be used to develop advanced porous materials for their implementation in applications of environmental relevance like solar energy conversion or the development of a new generation of electronic devices that combine porosity and electrical response.

Our work on MOFs for supercapacitors has been highlighted in the Chem. Commun. Emerging Investigators Issue. This special issue, now in its sixth year, intends to showcase the high-quality research being carried out by international researchers in the early stages of their independent careers