Synthesis and Solid State NMR Characterization of Hybrid Glasses Based on Metal-Organic Framework materials

• Grant number: 22/12427-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2023
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Marcos de Oliveira Junior
• Grantee: Camila Mizuki Ito Nishida
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In the last decade there has been an increasing interest for the development of amorphous Metal-Organic Framework (a-MOF) materials. These materials combine the interesting properties of MOFs (outstanding thermal and chemical stabilities, high surface areas, excellent porosities, and tunable pore sizes, shapes and chemical functions) with properties of the amorphous phase (isotropy, absence of grain boundaries, abundant defects, active sites and flexibility). In this project we propose to use 1H, 13C and 113Cd solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques to investigate structural similarities/differences between isomeric crystalline and glassy Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). This study will bring valuable insight about the nature of the amorphous state in MOFs, which will contribute to the further development of this research field. The work proposed here is part of a multidisciplinary task to fully understand the structural details of the different constituents of a-MOFs. The innovation in the work comes from the study of structural details by means of solid state NMR techniques, which allow to probe structural variations in the coordination environment of the organic ligands and the metallic centers. Most of the NMR methodology to be employed is well known for the characterization of polymeric systems and will fit very well the undergraduate level of the research. The student will be trained in both, synthesis of ZIFs and solid state NMR spectroscopy investigations.