Publication: Ligand cleavage by ozonolysis to fuse micropores into mesopores

One of the projects I’ve been working on this year just reached a happy end, by getting published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.

I am really proud of what we achieved with my colleagues Heng and Jorge from the NanoUp group. When the method is elegant and the results are beautiful, it honestly makes the article easier to flow… I was pretty confident this work will be published smoothly after the great feedback I received when I had the chance to present during an invited talk in IREC , but also face to face to some great scientists, Prof. Christian Doonan from Adelaide, Prof. Christof Janiak from Düsseldorf, etc. as well as one of the most prolific chemist of the century, Prof. Omar Yaghi when he visited our lab before summer.

Basically, we selected selected a pair of organic ligands with similar length and shape, to be inserted randomly (well mixed) as pillars in a porous matrix. Specificity of one of the ligand versus the other is the presence of one or two olefin bonds, readily cleavable in ozone atmosphere.

Breaking and removing this ligand, while the other remains untouched allows to play with the porosity, to tune it in order to merge micropores into mesopores. But that’s not all. A very cool feature is that we were also able to extract some organic parts from the framework, by a sublimation, deposition process. Almost like fine surgery!

The articles describes it in details, go check it!

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Illustrating Science

Besides science is allow me affording my daily expenses, travels etc. I also practice photography as a hobby. I mainly take travel photography and I also collaborate with an Italian music magazine and a festival to shoot concerts (you can see some of my work on my Instagram @gecniv).

I have been recently shooting a few pictures of the equipments in my lab to update our website. Some of them turned out to look pretty cool and my friend Jordi, who was finalizing his PhD manuscript picked one illustrating his research line (The Photothermal Effect in MOFs) to be the cover of his thesis.

It’s a pretty cool feeling when your hobby meets your professional environment from time to time. I am very happy with the outcome and hope it will bring him luck and put his jury in the proper mood for the D-day !

Media: Transversal Reticular Chemistry Highlighted in Science

Pretty hard to believe, but it happened. My latest publication in J. Am. Chem. Soc. about transversal reticular chemistry using Zigzag ligands in MOFs has just been highlighted today in the prestigious journal Science!

I wrote here last month how important and significant this work was for me, especially as being corresponding author for the first time. It seems some other scientists found it of hight interest and considered worth highlighting it!

More about this work here.

Publication: Transversal design in reticular chemistry

My latest results have just been accepted in J. Am. Chem. Soc., and I’m proud of it! For several reasons. Because this work is probably the one like the most out of what I published during the last 4 years. I really enjoyed this project from the first trials in the lab until the writing of the article.

Also, this article is very special to me, because it is my first article as a corresponding author, which shows how I gradually gained independence in research and I can now design and conduct high quality research projects. Reading enthusiastic feedback from (most of) the reviewers was really stimulating: “the manuscript is well written and organized”, “This work is insightful, carefully validated and well organized”, “This is a new and advanced design approach that provides access to new structures with modular porosities and additional functionalities”, The present work is an important contribution to the existing reticular chemistry approaches in MOF syntheses”

I’m proud of the outcome, but I think what I enjoy the most, what I have been fighting for, every day, is that yes, it is still possible to publish in some of the highest quality journals in chemistry even if your new molecules don’t have any special property, but just for the beauty and novelty of your design approach. Fundamental science is still in business folks, despite the increasing difficulties to get funding, despite the constantly growing race for the most [put here a trendy property] material…

That makes my day!

Read more about this article.

Publication: tandem and multicomponent reactions in squaramide based IRMOF

It took a little while for my first paper of 2018 to come. Here it is (and there are more on the way). A very beautiful work about catalysis in a nicely designed squaramide IRMOF by my friend Claudia just published in ChemCatChem.

pdf article available soon.

Special guest in NanoUp: Prof. Omar Yaghi

On the 8th of May, Prof. Dr. Omar. M. Yaghi was invited by Prof. Dr. Daniel Maspoch to give a conference as part of the Manuel Cardona Lectures in UAB. Through an inspiring talk, he explained the milestones achieved in the field of MOFs thanks to Reticular Chemistry, and the challenges still remaining to solve real life issues pertaining to energy or access to clean water.

Then, he spent some time in our group and dedicated some time with our group. I had the chance to present him my two main projects, about novel design opportunities reticular chemistry and ozonolysis for post synthetic modification of MOFs. He gave very nice feedback, precious advice and shared his enthusiasm for my projects.

Then, we went for dinner in Barcelona. A very nice and inspiring day for me.

Conference: Invited speaker at Materials day in IREC

On 12th of June, I’ll give an invited talk about “Ozonolysis as a solid-gas post-synthetic tuning of porosity in Metal-Organic Frameworks” at the Materials Day at Instituto de Investigación en Energía de Cataluña (IREC).

During 45 min, I will present some very exciting (and unpublished) results, so don’t miss it!
Good news, registration is free.
Check out the program