Tag: MOFs

News

Farewell Matt and Sam

Today after a gourmet calzone group lunch at the Plough, Harborne, we bid farewell to our MSci project students this year, Matt Liddle and Sam Gale.

Matt investigated the phase behaviour of the BIRM-1 family of carboxyphosphonate MOFs, mapping out which phases formed under different synthetic conditions. He discovered at least one new material and showed that, like BIRM-1, it underwent structural collapse and then recrystallisation upon drying and resolvation. Matt goes on to PhD research in the group of Prof Ross Forgan at the University of Glasgow.

Sam investigated structural and compositional variations in the MDABCO-based halide perovskites. He found several new structures––some wonderfully unintended!––that pushed the limits of phase behaviour, broke the rules (that we wrote!) and showed that paraelectric–ferroelectric phase transitions are highly dependent on sample history. We’re currently writing up his work so watch this space for a paper in the near future… Sam is taking a year out and will be looking for PhD opportunities for 2023.

Farewell and good luck for your final exams, Matt and Sam!

News

Farewell Joe!

We bid a fond farewell to Joe Barker, who leaves UoB for an exciting Postdoc Research position in the group of Prof Fiona Meldrum at the University of Leeds.

Joe joined the group this year as he was finishing off his PhD research, to help with our MSci projects jointly supervised by Prof Paul Anderson. It was great having you at our group meetings and learning from all your insights into carboxyphosphonate MOFs.

We’ll miss you but we’re looking forward to watching all the developments in your career and research in future!

News

New MSci project students!

This month we are joined by Matthew Liddle and Samuel Gale, who will be carrying out their Masters research projects with the group. Matt’s project is looking at phase behaviour of a carboxyphosphonate MOF, BIRM-1, which has potential use in ion exchange and transport. Sam’s project is investigating relationships between the physical properties of hybrid perovskite ferroelectrics and their structural chemistry.

L-R: Sam Gale, Matt Liddle and Joe Barker.

Both Sam and Matt also have a second co-supervisor, Prof Paul Anderson, as well as his PhD student Joe Barker, who joins us as an honorary group member involved in day-to-day supervision of the projects.

Welcome, Sam, Matt and Joe!

Papers

Monitoring MOFs

Ever wanted to monitor your MOF synthesis on the cheap? Look no further, because Felicity’s Open Access paper describing how MOF scale-up can be improved using an open source, multi-channel monitor – all built for less than $100 – is now out in Scientific Reports! She used simultaneous temperature, turbidity, pH, and visible light absorbance to track the formation of STA-16(Ni), observing the reaction critical processes that guided the development of a faster and more efficient synthesis route to material with comparable porosity.

The work was performed while Felicity was a Part II student in Oxford during her project at Johnson Matthey, co-supervised by Tim Johnson, Stephen Poulson and Stephen Bennett.

News

New year, new arrivals

This month we are joined by Harry Lloyd and Aaron Chambers, who will be starting two exciting, collaborative PhD projects in the group!

Harry is studying time-resolved dynamics of framework materials under electric fields on a joint Diamond Light Source PhD studentship. He’ll be co-supervised by Dr Lucy Saunders and Dr Mark Warren from Diamond, where he’ll spend two years getting hands-on at Beamline I19-1!

Aaron is studying the formation and processing of MOF nanoparticle composites as part of a collaboration initiative between the University of Birmingham and BAM, the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin. He’ll be co-supervised by Dr Brian Pauw from BAM, where he’ll visit to perform 3-D printing and in-depth structural characterisation.