Our laboratory is interested at the intersection of porous solids, specifically metal organic frameworks and organic polymers. We're really interested in understanding the interface between these two materials and how we can make composites that have new emergent properties that are characteristic of both the porous solid as well as the polymer component. Recently, we found that grafting polymer onto the surface of MOF, we could produce composite MOF polymer particle that's self-assembled into ultrathin films.
We call this film self-assembled MOF monolayer, or SAMs. We are now interested in understanding how SAMs vary depending on polymer length, particle size, and other characteristics. I've begun to explore the role of polymer molecular weight, polymer composition, and polymer grafting density, as well as particle size and shape on SAM formation and stability.
I believe this study will be very important for understanding and controlling SAM formation, stability, and future applications. One interesting feature of SAMs is that they can be made ultra thin, just one particle layer thick. We are unaware of other particle films this thin that are unsupported by another substrate and freestanding.
This unique property may give SAMs advantages as cross-membrane over other films or particle assemblies. We're really interested in continuing to study SAMs, their self-assembly, and what unique properties make them so stable as ultra thin films. In particular, we're really interested in studying SAMs as coatings and membranes and their use in challenging separations.
Ultimately, we think SAMs provide a number of avenues for research that have yet to be explored.
