ChemBE Seminar Series: Randall Snurr

Description

Randall Snurr, professor and chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University, will give a talk titled "Designing Metal-Organic Frameworks with Optimal Surface Area and Catalytic Properties" for the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

This is a hybrid event. To attend virtually, use Zoom ID 919 5918 2879 with passcode 270887.

Abstract:

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a versatile class of nanoporous materials synthesized in a "building-block" approach from inorganic nodes and organic linkers. By selecting appropriate building blocks, the structural and chemical properties of the resulting materials can be finely tuned, and this makes MOFs promising materials for applications in gas storage, chemical separations, sensing, drug delivery, and catalysis. In the early days of MOFs, remarkably high surface areas were reported, leading to questions about the applicability of the traditional method for determining surface areas due to Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET). The talk will describe how molecular-level modeling provided new insights into these questions and how molecular simulation played a role in designing MOFs with ever-higher surface areas as well as optimized properties for gas storage and separation. In addition, the role of quantum chemical modeling to design and better understand MOF catalysts will be presented, focusing on selective oxidation of alkanes.