Javier Castells & Natalia M. Padial’s work has just been published as a Very Important Paper in Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. The work describes a new family of heterometallic Titanium(IV)-based Metal Organic Frameworks, namely MUV-10, that can be produced in gram quantity and show remarkable stability in water. Moreover, the paper shows how the electronic structure of these materials can be tuned through the heterometallic centres by means of metal doping, which is further supported by theoretical calculations and by photocatalytic H2 production from water, in collaboration with Hermenegildo García’s group at ITQ. For more info see here

José Navarro’s work to be featured in the “New Talents: Europe” special issue in Dalton Transactions investigates the structural response of a dense peptide metal–organic framework of Zn(GlyTyr)2. This material shows a reversible compression by 13% in volume at 4 GPa that is facilitated by the ability of the peptidic linker to fold cooperatively. Compared to other structural transformations in Zn(II) peptide MOFs, this behaviour is not affected by host/guest interactions and relies exclusively on the conformational flexibility of the peptide and its side chain chemistry. For more info see here.

Víctor Rubio’s work has just been accepted in Advanced Materials. This paper reports on the convenience of a solution-based bottom-up method, which combines the use of the Langmuir-Blodgett technique, Layer-by-Layer and self-assembled monolayers to transfer high-quality ultrathin films of a semiconductive 2D MOF in a controlled fashion. This versatile methodology enabled us to fabricate MOF-based electronic devices and study the electrical conductivity on the thinnest MOF films (10 nm thick) reported so far. For more info see here

Javier Castell’s paper in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces demonstrates the formation of robust catechol coatings for enhanced moisture tolerance by one step reaction of HKUST crystals with synthetic catechols. In collaboration with D. Ruiz-Molinas’ grout @ICN2 we show that the use of fluorinated catechols results in hydrophobic, permeable coatings that protect HKUST from water degradation whilst retaining close to 100 % of its original sorption capacity. For more info see here

Justine is originally from Lille, France. She joins the team as a visiting Erasmus Student. Her research will focus on controlling defects in the family of titanium MOFs MUV-10.

Sergio is Valencian born and breed. He earned his Ph.D. in 2008, working in the group of Prof. Eugenio Coronado at the Universidad de Valencia. She next joined the Unité Mixte of Physicque CNRS/THALES. He received a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship in 2017 and will be leading the development of electronic devices based on conductive MOFs @Funimat.

Carolina Ruiz-Ganivet is original of Madrid and earned her Ph.D. in 2015, working in the group of Prof. Tomás Torres at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She next joined Prof. Luis Echegoyen’s group at the University of Texas at el Paso (USA). She will responsible for most of the organic aspects of the synthesis of the MOFs developed @Funimat.

Alejandro is Valencia born and bred. He earned a degree in Chemistry from the Universidad de Valencia in 2016 and joins the team as a Master Student. His research will focus on the development of MOFs that feature high-stability and photoactivity.

Maria graduated in Chemical Engineering in 2015 at the University of Valencia and worked with an internship at the plastic technology institute, AIMPLAS. She joins the team as a Master Student. Her research will focus on controlling mass transport and reactivity in stable MOFs by defect engineering.

Ross Forgan, URF and Chemistry Reader at the University of Glasgow, visited us to lecture on the research of his team on the development of new applications based on zirconium (IV) metal-organic frameworks. We are hopeful this will initiate a fruitful collaboration between both groups.

Elena Lopez Maya, currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Versailles in France, has received a Juan de la Cierva in the category Formación to join FuniMat by the end of the year. Congratulations!

Emilio J. Cocinero leader of the Spectroscopy Group at the UPV/EHU visited us to present their research on how high-resolution spectroscopy in the microwave region can be used to solve problems in modern chemistry.

Carlos visited the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona for an invited seminar to present our research on flexible peptide-MOFs for chiral drugs separation and high-pressure structural transformations.

Funimat was present at the ACS Symposium held in New Orleans and the docMOF symposium held in Germany. Carlos delivered a talk on charge transport in MOF ultrathin films and Javi presented our recent work in Titanium MOFs.

Carlos visited the UPV/EHU in Bilbao and the Imperial College of London for two invited seminars to present our recent advances in charge transport and photo-activity in metal-organic frameworks.

Rob Ameloot from KU Leuven visited us to lecture on the research of his team on chemical vapor deposition of metal-organic frameworks. We are hopeful this will initiate a fruitful collaboration between both groups.

Carlos visited the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid for an invited seminar to present our research on the sidechain engineering of porosity and structural flexibility of peptide metal-organic frameworks.

We have been awarded a 3 years project financed by MINECO that also includes a PhD Scholarship to develop Metal-Organic Frameworks of Biological Inspiration (CTQ2017-83486-P).

Funimat was present at the 2nd European Conference in Metal-Organic Frameworks held in Delft. Carlos delivered a talk on ‘Peptide MOFs for enantioselective separation of chiral drugs’ and Javi & Natalia presented posters featuring our most recent work.