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Tailoring Metal-Organic Framework Glasses with Higher Fracture Toughness

Project description

Enhancing the fracture resistance of novel porous glasses

Porous glasses and ceramics are promising materials for catalysis, separation and storage applications. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have structural pores that make them quite interesting for such applications. More recently, it was found that zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), a subset of MOFs with high porosity, can be melted and made into glasses. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ToughMOF project is employing advanced experimental and in silico methods to address issues with these materials’ low fracture toughness and identify optimised glass structures with improved mechanical performance.

Objective

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of organic-inorganic hybrid materials with high porosity. Recently, it has been discovered that a subset of MOFs, namely zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), can be melted and quenched into glasses. This makes it possible to prepare bulk, transparent ZIF glasses with modifiable organic and inorganic building units. However, preliminary results have shown that one of the representative ZIF glasses, ZIF-62, exhibits lower fracture toughness than most traditional oxide glasses. This seriously limits the scope of possible ZIF glass applications within, e.g. gas separation and storage.

In the proposed project, we will explore the composition-structure-mechanical property relationship of ZIF glasses. The aim is to optimize the glass composition and structure to achieve improved fracture toughness, while not significantly lowering the strength and stiffness. To this end, we will first systematically vary the ZIF glass structure by tuning the composition, thermal history, and pressure history, in addition to subjecting the glasses to irradiation by heavy ions. Then the mechanical properties of the different glasses will be measured. Finally, these experiments will be complemented by atomistic simulations and machine learning predictions to identify optimized glass structures with improved mechanical performance.

The project builds on complementary expertise of the fellow applicant (atomistic simulations, machine learning) and supervisor (mechanics, MOF glasses). Together with the research and training environment provided by the host organization (Aalborg University, Denmark), this will ensure the achievement of this timely and innovative project as well as the dissemination and exploitation of the expected results. The research outputs will lead to new understanding of fracture behavior of MOF materials. The fellow applicant will emerge from the project with new skills, and the capability to launch his own research group.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

AALBORG UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 207 312,00
Address
FREDRIK BAJERS VEJ 7K
9220 AALBORG
Denmark

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Region
Danmark Nordjylland Nordjylland
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 207 312,00
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