Professor Lee Brammer from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, UK, will present a Chemistry Department seminar entitled, "Chemical reactions and dynamic properties in metal-organic framework materials (MOFs)

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of crystalline materials comprised of metal ions or small metal clusters linked by organic ligands into regular networks. Solvent-filled cavities and pores formed upon initial synthesis can be evacuated to form periodic open-framework materials that have the capability to take up molecular guests from the gas or solution phase. MOFs are in principle extensively (perhaps almost infinitely) tailorable in terms of pores shape and dimensions and post-synthetic modification enables a wide range of chemical environments to be established within the pore space. MOFs can be thought of as a platform for bespoke materials. Among the extensive variety of applications being exploited for MOFs are: gas sorption and separation, chemical separations or selective entrapment of molecules, heterogeneous catalysis, drug delivery/therapeutics and magnetic, optical and conducting materials.

Our work has focussed on understanding the dynamic behaviour of MOFs, which can exhibit remarkable flexibility, an asset for designing responsive materials, and propensity to undergo chemical changes that enable new functionality and properties to be introduced. The talk will focus on some examples that illustrate chemical transformations and dynamic behaviour in MOFs we have studied, and illustrate the value of in situ crystallographic studies