The summer faculty research talks will begin next Wednesday, June 13th. The first speaker is Laurance Beauvais. The title of his talk is "Towards the Rational Design of Functional Materials: Methods for the Incorporation of Coordinatively Unsaturated Metal Sites into Microporous Solids"

Abstract

Recently, the low temperature preparation of microporous materials has advanced rapidly, and it is now possible to prepare porous materials with predetermined structures and porosity. What is lacking is the ability to incorporate reactive metal sites into these solids using current methods. In this talk, I will outline our approach to incorporate active sites inspired by homogeneous small molecules catalysts and enzymes into extended solids. Applications for these materials include hydrogen storage, dinitrogen reduction, oxidation catalysts, and magnetic and electronic materials. The requirements for the solids, their characterization, and future directions will be discussed.