3-4 December 2015

4th Electrospinning Conference

Kirill attended the 4th Electrospinning Conference in London organised by the Institute of Physics. The two-day meeting encompassed electrospinning fundamentals and applications linked to all disciplines, from physics and chemistry, to materials biology and medicine. (Below: Kirill photographed with Prof Rutledge from MIT).

 18 November 2015

Physical and Chemical Versatilities of Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) Materials

JCT gave an invited lecture at the University of Hull, on the topic of "Physical and Chemical Versatilities of Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) Materials".

12 November 2015

Johnson Matthey Technology Centre

JCT gave a research seminar at Johnson Matthey Technology Centre in Reading. The talk was focused on the emergent practical applications of MOF materials and composites.

12 October 2015

Kirill Titov and Rebecca Venis joined our research group

Kirill Titov and Rebecca Venis joined our research group as DPhil and MEng students, respectively. Let us welcome both to our lab!

11-14 October 2015

EuroMOF2015

1 September 2015

Finally we're joining the vibrant Twitter community!

Please follow us @MMCLabOx

We shall be using this brilliant avenue for reporting our latest discoveries and highlighting exciting studies and news by other labs.

14 August 2015

Shape-shifting gels get smarter

Our research published this week in Advanced Materials about the discovery of an intriguing family of supramolecular hybrid materials, exhibiting multifunctional physical and chemical properties, have been featured on the Oxford Science Blog.

Read the full story: "Shape-shifting gels get smarter"

10 August 2015

Multifunctional Supramolecular Hybrid Materials Constructed from Hierarchical Self‐Ordering of In Situ Generated Metal‐Organic Framework (MOF) Nanoparticles

Our latest paper has been published in Advanced Materials and featured on the journal cover. In this work, we have demonstrated the supramolecular engineering of a new family of hybrid gels, coexisting with MOF nanoparticles created in situ. We discovered that the rapid process of inorganic–organic self-assembly generates a hierarchical fibre network architecture, whose electrical conductivity and mechanical characteristics can be tuned, to yield a range of bespoke soft matter with unconventional properties. Notably, facile production of thin films employing such nanoparticles is extremely promising to enable technological applications such as optoelectronics and multifunctional sensors. 

Read the full article: [DOI - Open Access] [PDF] 

20 July 2015

Good Vibrations": Terahertz modes and lattice dynamics in MOFs

Our work has been featured in the 2015 Diamond Light Source Annual Review, with a Research Highlight under the Soft Condensed Matter Village:  "Good Vibrations": Terahertz modes and lattice dynamics in MOFs

20 May 2015

UK Neutron and Muon User Meeting

JCT was an Invited Speaker at the UK Neutron and Muon User Meeting 2015 Prof. Tan was an Invited Speaker at the UK Neutron and Muon Science and User Meeting 19- 21 May 2015, held in the Hinckley Island Hotel, Leicestershire. Title of talk delivered "Metal‐Organic Frameworks: Elucidation of physico‐chemical functions through fundamental lattice dynamics"

14 May 2015

Lubbock day 2015

Congratulations to Kirill Titov on winning the BP Award for the Best Chemical Engineering or Energy Related Exhibit at the Lubbock Day 2015, held in the Department of Engineering Science. Kirill presented a poster entitled "Electrospinning of Nanomaterials" and gave a live demo using the electrospinning apparatus which he designed and built, for studying the complex architectures and properties of fine-scale polymer fibres. These porous fibre network membranes are biodegradable in nature, and have a great potential for many technological applications, ranging from tissue engineering and drug delivery, to micro-filtration and next-generation sensors. This work was done as part of his Final Year MEng research project, jointly-supervised by JCT and Robert Field.

8 December 2014

CrystEngComm Themed Issue Jan 2015

Prof Tan and Dr Civalleri are Guest Editors to the Special Themed Issue on "Metal-Organic Frameworks and Hybrid Materials: From Fundamentals to Applications", presenting a collection of 31 papers, including 5 review articles (Highlights). Together, this collection offers a unique coverage encompassing both the experimental and the computational domains illustrating the fruitful synergy between them, which will be appealing to a broad cross-section of readers. The Front Cover of this Special Issue features the work from our laboratory jointly with the University of Turin, elucidating the complex elastic properties of Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework materials (DOI).

25-28 November 2014

Science for the Common Good

Prof Tan was an Invited Delegate to the Commonwealth Science Conference 2014 in Bangalore India, organised by the Royal Society and the Government of India. The inauguration address was delivered by the President of India, in the presence of HRH The Duke of York. This photo was taken at the closing ceremony, showing Prof CNR Rao presenting a gift to Sir Paul Nurse (President of the Royal Society).

21 November 2014

Discovery of Terahertz vibrations in MOF materials

Oxford Science Blog has written a feature article about our latest PRL paper on the discovery of Terahertz vibrations in MOF materials.
> Read full story here: Vibrations Reveal How Material "Takes a Breath"
> Rutherford Appleton Laboratory ISIS News: "Unravelling the Physical Possibilities of MOFs"
> This work has also been highlighted on the Balliol College News (November 2014 issue)

1 October 2014

MOF-2014 Kobe

Prof Tan was an Invited Speaker at the MOF2014 Conference held in Japan, where he presented new discoveries on “Identifying Terahertz Vibrations that Control the Elastic Properties of MOFs”. More photos from conference found here.

25 July 2014

ISAMS-2014

Congratulations to Matthew, who won the Best Poster Prize at the International School on Ab initio Modelling of Solids (ISAMS) 2014, in Regensburg, Germany. The title of Matthew’s poster was, ‘Terahertz Vibrations in Metal-Organic Frameworks: From Gate-Opening Phenomenon to Shear-Driven Structural Instability’.

31 January 2014

Metal-Organic Frameworks & Hybrid Materials

CrystEngComm Themed Issue on "Metal-Organic Frameworks & Hybrid Materials" (Issue 2, 2015)
Guest Editors: JC Tan and B Civalleri

This special issue will consolidate many of the excellent contributions by the delegates (photo below) who attended the highly-successful Euromat2013 international materials congress in Seville, last summer. The themed issue will feature around 35 Papers including a number of Highlight Articles, showcasing recent advances in the rapidly expanding field of MOFs and hybrid materials at the interface of crystal engineering, materials science, physics, chemistry and biomedicine. Without question the scientific community has witnessed an explosion of activity connected to MOF and hybrid materials, ranging from multifunctional materials design and discovery, innovative thin films for smart sensors and electronics, to understanding thermo-mechanical behaviour and structural stabilities, and from reactivity characterisation to sorption and separation studies. This special issue will appear online on CrystEngComm's website at the beginning of November 2014.

8-13 September 2013

Hybrid and Metal-Organic Framework Materials

Euromat 2013 Seville, Spain
Symposium B4-I: Hybrid and Metal-Organic Framework Materials 
Organisers: JC Tan (Univ. Oxford) and Bartolomeo Civalleri (Univ. Turin)

Some of the delegates who attended the B4-I Symposium on MOF and hybrid materials (group photo taken on last day of meeting). The meeting was subdivided into 7 sessions, encompassing 35 Oral presentations, 6 Highlights plus 3 Keynote Lectures:
- Dr Mike Allendorf (Sandia) "The Power of Empty Space: Metal-Organic Frameworks as Electronic Materials"
- Prof Guillaume Maurin (Montpellier) "Adsorption and Dynamics of Guest Molecules in Hybrid Porous Materials: A Computational Exploration"
- Dr Stefan Marx (BASF) "Application of MOFs from an Industrial Point of View"