Our research lies at the interface between chemical engineering, materials science and biotechnology using molecular
simulations, advanced experimental techniques and engineering to design new nanoporous materials. In particular,
we focus on the study of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), one of the most exciting development in recent porous materials
science.MOFs present potential applications in many areas,including several promising uses in biomedical and industrial
areas of gas separationand storage. In MOFs, the self-assembly of metal ions or clusters, which act as coordination centres,
linked together by a variety of polyatomic organic bridging ligands, results in tailored nanoporous host materials with a
vast structural diversity. The most striking advantage of MOFs over more traditional porous materials, such as zeolites
or activated carbons, is the possibility to tune the host / guest interaction by choosing the appropriate building blocks
and topologies.
We aim to exploit the new opportunities these materials can offer compared with classical porous materials.
Our main research areas are the following: