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nanotimes News in Brief

11-08 :: August 2011

MOF Crystal Growth // New Method to Position and Functionalize MOF Crystals

(a) Schematic representation of the “seeds” after application into micro-fabricated cavities, (b) Controlled growth of the MPFs in the micro-cavities, (c) Electron microscope image of MOF crystal growth controlled by “seeds” in each of the micro-cavities (left) and the different stages of the MOF crystal growth at different times (right).

lia; Monash University; Swinburne University of Technology), Italy (Associazione CIVEN) and Austria (Institute of Biophysics and Nanosystems Research, Austria) managed to manufacture highly- structured, porous crystals with multidimensional structures and extremely large surfaces.

A

They developed a special method that allows con- trolling place and type of crystal growth and also the speed of growth. One gram of that material has a surface of more than three football fields. The spa- cious pores can be used as sponges that can store gases like hydrogen, carbon dioxide or natural gas. Furthermore, they could be used as nano-filter for gas or liquid purification.

n international research team from Australia (CSIRO; The University of Western Austra-

The controlled nanometre-sized pores and surface areas of thousands of square metres per gram, Metal- Organic Frameworks (MOFs) may have an integral role in future catalysis, filtration and sensing appli- cations.

Paolo Falcaro, Anita J. Hill, Kate M. Nairn, Jacek Jasieniak, James I. Mardel, Timothy J. Bastow, Sheridan C. Mayo, Mi- chele Gimona, Daniel Gomez, Harold J. Whitfield, Raffa- ele Riccò, Alessandro Patelli, Benedetta Marmiroli, Heinz Amenitsch, Tobias Colson, Laura Villanova, Dario Buso: A new method to position and functionalize metal-organic framework crystals, In: Nature Communications, Vol. 2, Article number: 237, March 15, 2011, DOI:10.1038/ ncomms1234: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1234