Jian Liu
Rochester Institute of Technology, NY·Chemistry
When two liquids that do not mix, such as oil and water, meet, the boundary between them forms a special chemical environment. Molecules at this interface behave differently than in either liquid, and some reactions and self-assembly processes work best there.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
Engineering
- Topics
metal-organic frameworks
porous materials
liquid-liquid interfaces
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Measure the adsorption and desorption thermodynamics and kinetics of polar and nonpolar molecules in hierarchically nanoporous metal-organic frameworks, and show that liquid-liquid interfaces form inside the pores.
- Locate where polar and nonpolar molecules sit in hydrophilic and hydrophobic MOF channels using difference electron density mapping from powder X-ray diffraction, plus neutron scattering combined with computer simulations.
- Run model reactions at the nanoconfined interfaces, including interfacial nanomembrane synthesis and catalytic phenol alkylation with olefins, and relate MOF structure to reaction performance through experiments and computation.
More about the research
The problem is that liquids naturally keep their contact area as small as possible, which limits how much of this useful interface is available. This project proposes to create huge numbers of tiny, stable liquid-liquid interfaces inside porous crystals called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are built from metal ions linked by organic molecules into regular networks of channels. Hierarchically nanoporous MOFs contain linked channels of different sizes, some water-attracting (hydrophilic) and some water-repelling (hydrophobic). The idea is that polar and nonpolar liquids will sort into different channels and meet in confined spaces only nanometers wide, forming periodic arrays of molecular-scale interfaces.
Why it matters
Many industrial reactions are slowed because two immiscible liquids touch over only a small area. Packing nanosized interfaces into porous MOFs could make such reactions more efficient. The work could also inform chemical processing, molecular separations and energy conversion that depend on liquid-liquid contact.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Tendai Gadzikwa
Kansas State University, KS·Chemistry·Early-career
Determine the molecular origins of unexpected reactivity observed within and on multifunctional metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), porous crystals with several chemical groups placed close together, using machine learning.
Kui Tan
University of North Texas, TX·Chemistry
Separate the diffusion of oxoanion pollutants through metal-organic framework (MOF) pores from their binding at local sites, using in situ infrared spectroscopy in water combined with ab initio modeling.
Michele Sarazen
Princeton University, NJ·Engineering·Early-career
Make hierarchical bifunctional zeolites, which combine tiny and larger pores with metal and acid sites, and test how their pore structure and connectivity change rates of polyolefin hydrocracking and catalyst deactivation.
The school
Rochester Institute of Technology: 9 labs on PI Pages, $78M a year on research, 65 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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