Paolo Falcaro from the Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for his research into microporous crystals.
Paolo Falcaro has secured a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant for his research into microporous crystals, known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), at TU Graz. The ERC will provide EUR 2 million in funding for research into these high-performance, leading-edge materials. Porous crystals or s'are the new stars in the world of materials science. s consist of metallic nodes connected by organic molecules. Their high porosity produces an extremely large surface area: one teaspoon of s'has the same surface area as a football pitch. The size of the pores in the crystals can be tuned and the chemical functionality of the pores can be precisely controlled. Thanks to their countless configurations and uniform-sized pores, in future s could be used to store gases or pharmaceutical ingredients; with s'acting as "molecular gates", their use for catalysis or chemical separation is also envisaged.
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