College of Chemistry

Sometimes solutions to complex, wide-ranging challenges can fit in the palm of your hand. That is certainly true with a developing technology that could help bring carbon capture to scale around the world. Invented at the University of California, Berkeley and supported by a group of entrepreneurial scientists at Cyclotron Road, these breath-mint sized pellets efficiently adsorb carbon dioxide from emission sources.

Until this year Robert Harris and Robert Bergman have been esteemed colleagues at the College. Recently however, when they were at an event discussing an interview Bergman had done with Professor William Lester, they made a very interesting personal discovery. Their lives had more than crossed as children living in Chicago’s Hyde Park. In fact, they had lived about 100 yards from each other across an alleyway.

In a new virtual collection from ACS Central Science, recently published articles about new research into reticular chemistry are highlighted. Omar Yaghi, The James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry, pens the introduction.

Some of the topics covered in the issue include: electric field response of MOFs; PolyCOFs; porous aromatic frameworks; improving the mechanical stability of MOFS using chemical caryatids; computational design of functionalized MOF nodes for catalysis; porous molecular solids and liquids; and rapid, elective heavy metal removal from water by MOFs/polydopamine composite.

The world already benefits greatly from space technology, especially in terms of communications, positioning services, Earth observation, and economic activity related to government-funded space programs. With an explosion of more than 2,000 commercial space companies, including those building communications satellites, orbital launch vehicles, and rovers for the Moon and Mars, the world’s commercial space capabilities are quickly expanding beyond our satellite industry,