Carlos Martí-Gastaldo
Functional Inorganic Materials Team, Instituto de Ciencia Molecular, Universidad de Valencia, Catedrático José Beltrán, 2, 46980, Spain. carlos.marti@uv.es
Abstract: Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are porous coordination polymers built from the interlinking of metal clusters and organic liners. MOFs have already demonstrated great potential in gas storage, separations, sensing and catalysis. Nowadays there is an increasing interest in developing an advanced generation of electronic and optoelectronic devices that make use of electrically active MOFs to exploit combination of electrical conductivity and porosity.[1] However, this type of applications requires the processing of these bulk materials as high-quality nanometric thin films with exquisite control over several parameters that are required for device performance like morphology, density, crystallinity, roughness and orientation. Research involving electrically conductive MOFs is just starting to blossom,[2] but investigation of the electrical conductivity of MOF thin films at the nanoscale (<100 nm) is still challenging due to the synthetic difficulties in producing smooth films with homogenous coverage and low roughness with nanometric accuracy. We will comment on the use of bottom-up techniques to produce homogeneous ultrathin films of MOFs with exquisite control over their nanometric thickness. Electrical properties of these ultrathin films can be then analysed in a vertical configuration by using the hanging-drop electrode technique[3] or by integration into MOF-FET architectures for measuring lateral charge transport.[4]
In addition to electrical conductivity, the interest of photoactive MOFs in the context of solar fuel production will be also discussed. Provided chemical robustness, Ti-MOFs are appealing materials in this regard due to the unique properties that can arise from the combination of high surface area, crystallinity, good photostability and photoactivity. We have recently engineered the optical response of chemically robust, photoactive, heterometallic Ti(IV)-MOFs by metal doping.[5] Compared to other methodologies based on the post-synthetic modification of MOFs, our approach is well fitted for controlling the positioning of dopants at an atomic level for more precise control over the band gap and electronic properties of the porous solid.
References:
[1] I. Stassen, N. Burtch, A. Talin, P. Falcaro, M. Allendorf, R. Ameloot, Chem. Soc. Rev. 2017, 46, 3185.
[2] L. Sun, M. G. Campbell, M. Dincă, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 3566.
[3] V. Rubio-Giménez, S. Tatay, F. Volatron, F. J. Martínez-Casado, C. Martí-Gastaldo, E. Coronado, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 2576.
[4] V. Rubio-Giménez, M. Galbiati, J. Castells-Gil, N. Almora Barrios, J. Navarro-Sánchez, G. Escorcia Ariza, M. Mattera, T. Arnold, J. Rawle, S. Tatay, E. Coronado, C. Martí-Gastaldo, Adv. Mater. 2018, 55, 1704291.
[5] J. Castells-Gil, N. M. Padial, N. Almora-Barrios, J. Albero, A. R. Ruiz-Salvador, J. González-Platas, H. García, C. Martí-Gastaldo 2018 (submitted).
Brief bio: Carlos Marti-Gastaldo obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Universidad de Valencia (Spain) in 2009 and was awarded by the Chemical Royal Society of Spain for this work. In 2010–2013, he worked with Matthew J. Rosseinsky as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of Liverpool (UK). In 2013, he started his independent career with a University Research Fellowship by the Royal Society. Currently, he is holding a ERC Starting Grant and Ramón y Cajal Fellowship at the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol) in Spain, where he leads the Functional Inorganic Materials team (www.icmol.es/funimat).
His work has been recognised with national and international awards like the ‘Young Researcher Olivier Kahn Recognition Award’ (2009), ‘NanoMatMol’ (2010), ‘Suschem Postdoc’ (2011) or the ’Young Researchers Award’ (2015) by the Chemical Royal Society of Spain that recognises the best Spanish chemists aged 40 or below.