Reimer and Long groups publish a VIP—Very Important Paper

October 1, 2013

CBE grad student Joseph Chen and co-workers have published a paper in Angewandte Chemie that has earned a unique distinction.

The editors of the journal have designated it a “Very Important Paper,” based on the evaluation of two referees. Less than five percent of Angewandte Chemie manuscripts receive such a positive recommendation.

Chen wrote the paper along with fellow members of the research group of CBE chair Jeff Reimer and members of the research group of chemistry professor Jeff Long.

The paper describes how NMR techniques can provide initial estimates of the pore volume and surface area of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are porous crystalline solids consisting of metal clusters or ions connected by organic linkers.

Some MOFs exhibit exceptional gas-storage capacities that may lead to practical hydrogen storage tanks for fuel cell vehicles and new techniques for scrubbing carbon dioxide from power plant exhaust.

Although an almost endless number of MOFs can be created, characterizing the new compounds is a major bottleneck. The development of a NMR tool to analyze porosity would accelerate the discovery of potentially interesting frameworks by quickly eliminating nonporous or low-surface-area materials that are not of interest.

More Information

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201305247/full