This thesis presents the synthesis, properties, and applications of two important classes of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs); lanthanide MOFs and hierarchical porous zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs). The materials have been characterized using a wide range of techniques including diffraction, imaging, various spectroscopic techniques, gas sorption, dynamical light scattering (DLS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In Chapter 1, the unique features of MOFs and ZIFs as well as their potential applications are summarized. In Chapter 2, different characterization techniques are presented. Chapter 3 describes a family of new isoreticular lanthanide MOFs synthesized using tri-topic linkers of different sizes, H3L1-H3L4, denoted SUMOF-7I-IV (Ln) (SU; Stockholm University, Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu and Gd, Paper I). The SUMOF-7I-III (Ln) contain permanent pores and exhibit exceptionally high thermal and chemical stability. The luminescence properties of SUMOF-7IIs are reported (Paper II). The influences of Ln ions and the tri-topic linkers as well as solvent molecules on the luminescence properties are investigated. Furthermore, the potential of SUMOF-7II (La) for selective sensing of Fe (III) ions and the amino acid tryptophan is demonstrated (Paper III).  Chapter 4 presents a simple, fast and scalable approach for the synthesis of hierarchical porous zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-8 and ZIF-67 using triethylamine (TEA)-assisted approach (Paper IV). Organic dye molecules and proteins are encapsulated directly into the ZIFs using the one-pot method. The photophysical properties of the dyes are improved through the encapsulation into ZIF-8 nanoparticles (Paper IV). The porosity and surface area of the ZIF materials can be tuned using the different amounts of dye or TEA. To further simplify the synthesis of hierarchical porous ZIF-8, a template-free approach is presented using sodium hydroxide, which at low concentrations induces the formation of zinc hydroxide nitrate nanosheets that serve as in situ sacrificial templates (Chapter 5, Paper V). A 2D leaf-like ZIF (ZIF-L) is also obtained using the method. The hierarchical porous ZIF-8 and ZIF-L show good performance for CO2 sorption. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 5: Manuscript.</p>

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Hongxing Jiang / The correlation between polarity and material quality of un-doped Al[0.81subscript]Ga[0.19subscript]N was studied. The overall material quality is significantly influenced by the growth polarity. The epilayers with aluminum-polarity have a much higher crystalline quality and better surface morphology than those of nitrogen-polarity. Nitrogen-polar growth more readily incorporates unintentional impurities. A-plane AlN epilayers have been grown on r-plane sapphire substrates. The orientation and high crystalline quality were confirmed by x-ray diffraction (XRD) [Theta]-2[Theta] scan exhibiting a reflection peak at 2[Theta] = 59.4[0superscript] and rocking curve of the (110) reflection having a line width of 940 arcsec. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy showed that the surface emission intensity of a-plane AlN epilayers is comparable to that of c-plane AlN. PL spectra of Mg-doped a- and c-plane AlN revealed that the Mg level in both a- and c-plane AlN is identical and is about ~ 0.5 eV. Identically designed a-plane and c-plane AlN/A1[0.65subscript]Ga[0.35subscript]N QWs have been grown on a-and c-plane AlN/Al[2subscript]O[3subscript] templates respectively, and their PL emission properties were studied. Low temperature PL characteristics of a-plane QWs are primarily governed by the quantum size effect, whereas those of c-plane QWs are significantly affected by the polarization fields. The growth of AlN epilayers on SiC substrates was investigated. A smooth, crack free AlN epilayer with high optical and crystalline quality was achieved. Because of its high quality, AlN was used as active layer in a hybrid Schottky photodetector. Highly conductive Si-doped Al[subscript0.75]Ga[0.25subscript]N alloys were grown on AlN/SiC templates. The effects of using Indium as a surfactant during the growth of Si-doped Al[0.75subscript]Ga[0.25subscript]N epilayers at relatively high temperature 1050 [degrees]C were studied. Indium significantly increases the doping efficiency as shown by RT Hall measurements. RT PL measurements show a clear correlation between emission intensity of the defect related transition and indium flow rate. P-type conductivity has been obtained in beryllium doped GaN by MOCVD. The activation energy of the beryllium acceptor was estimated to be 118 [plus or minus] 4 meV, which is about 40 meV less than the activation energy of the Mg acceptor in GaN.

Solar energy is a sustainable resource which has substantial potential to meet the increasing demand for renewable energy. Though there has been some success in harvesting solar energy for electricity production, converting solar energy to chemical energy as fuels is still a challenge due to low efficiency. Since the discovery of TiO2 photocatalysts for splitting water (4) and reducing CO2 (5) to form useful chemical feedstock such as H2, CO and CH4, much research has been done to increase the efficiency of photocatalysts. However, the current conversion efficiency of photocatalysts remains low (~5%) (6, 7). Issues being addressed include the wide bandgap and mismatched band edge for reactions (thermodynamic energy for reaction), poor quantum efficiency of the photon collector systems, high recombination of e-/h+ pairs and limitation in the rate of charge transfer from photocatalyst to reactants. This work focuses on improving efficiency of photocatalysts for fuel production through several approaches: (1) engineering a metal-organic-framework (MOF) to have proper band gaps and band edges for targeted reactions and for enhancing photoadsorption in the visible light range, (2) tuning an ABO3-type perovskite for desired bandgaps and thermodynamically favored bandedges for CO2 reduction with water in visible light range. A porphyrin-based Ti-MOF is studied for CO2 photoreduction to gaseous chemical fuels such as CH4 and CO. The porphyrin linkers allow porphyrin-based MOF-525 to achieve narrow bandgap (Eg = ~1.7eV) to absorb visible light, indicating its ability to harvest more solar energy than conventional TiO2. Ti/Zr-MOF-525 also exhibited the appropriate energy level alignment for CO2 and H2O redox reaction for CO and CH4 production. Its CO2 photoreactivity under visible light was demonstrated in a photoreaction, illuminated by 150W Xenon solar simulator. Interestingly, Ti/Zr-MOF-525 demonstrates a selectivity toward CH4, a more valuable fuels than CO. The gas phase reaction condition is an advance over liquid photoreaction. The catalyst stability was also studied and presented. After 3 cycles of reactions, Ti/Zr-MOF-525 is relatively stable for CO2 photoreduction and able to maintain its photoreactivity at about 60-65% of fresh catalyst. The reduction of reactivity is due to a less stable fresh catalyst. When investigating LaCr1-xFexO3 perovskite oxides for photocatalyst, it was found that when replacing Cr ions at the B sites of LaCrO3 by Fe ions, the bandgap does not follow a linear trend in regards to metal ratio composition but rather reflects the smaller bandgap of LaFeO3. Bandedges were successfully measured for the new synthesized materials. At x = 0.25, the conduction band potential remains similar with x = 0. However, at x = 0.75, the conduction band potential was more negative than either perovskites at x = 0 or x = 1. Future simulation of density of state could address this interesting observation. CO2 reduction relativities of each perovskites were predicted well by their measured bandgaps and bandedges. Among five studied perovskites, synthesized LaCr0.25Fe0.75O3 (x = 0.75) is the most active for CO2 photoreduction under visible illumination at room temperature thanks to its small bandgap (2.0 eV) and its suitable bandedges for CO2 photoreduction.

The importance of infrared (IR) technology (for detection in the 3-5 μm and 8-14 μm atmospheric windows) has spread from military applications to civilian applications since World War II. The commercial IR detector market in these wavelength ranges is dominated by mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) alloys. The use of these alloys has, however, been faced with technological difficulties. One of the materials that have been tipped to be suitable to replace MCT is InAs/InxGa1-xSb strained layer superlattices (SLS’s). Atmospheric pressure metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) has been used to grow InAs/GaSb strained layer superlattices (SLS’s) at 510 °C in this study. This is a starting point towards the development of MOVPE InAs/InxGa1-xSb SLS’s using the same system. Before the SLS’s could be attempted, the growth parameters for GaSb were optimised. Growth parameters for InAs were taken from reports on previous studies conducted using the same reactor. Initially, trimethylgallium, a source that has been used extensively in the same growth system for the growth of GaSb and InxGa1-xSb was intended to be used for gallium species. The high growth rates yielded by this source were too large for the growth of SLS structures, however. Thus, triethylgallium (rarely used for atmospheric pressure MOVPE) was utilized. GaSb layers (between 1 and 2 μm thick) were grown at two different temperatures (550 °C and 510 °C) with a varying V/III ratio. A V/III ratio of 1.5 was found to be optimal at 550 °C. However, the low incorporation efficiency of indium into GaSb at this temperature was inadequate to obtain InxGa1-xSb with an indium mole fraction (x) of around 0.3, which had previously been reported to be optimal for the performance of InAs/InxGa1-xSb SLS’s, due to the maximum splitting of the valence mini bands for this composition. The growth temperature was thus lowered to 510 °C. This resulted in an increase in the optimum V/III ratio to 1.75 for GaSb and yielded much higher incorporation efficiencies of indium in InxGa1-xSb. However, this lower growth temperature also produced poorer surface morphologies for both the binary and ternary layers, due to the reduced surface diffusion of the adsorbed species. An interface control study during the growth of InAs/GaSb SLS’s was subsequently conducted, by investigating the influence of different gas switching sequences on the interface type and quality. It was noted that the growth of SLS’s without any growth interruptions at the interfaces leads to tensile strained SLS’s (GaAs-like interfaces) with a rather large lattice mismatch. A 5 second flow of TMSb over the InAs surface and a flow of H2 over GaSb surface yielded compressively strained SLS’s. Flowing TMIn for 1 second and following by a flow of TMSb for 4 seconds over the GaSb surface, while flowing H2 for 5 seconds over the InAs surface, resulted in SLS’s with GaAs-like interfacial layers and a reduced lattice mismatch. Temperature gradients across the surface of the susceptor led to SLS’s with different structural quality. High resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD) was used to determine the thicknesses as well as the type of interfacial layers. The physical parameters of the SLS’s obtained from simulating the HRXRD spectra were comparable to the parameters obtained from cross sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) images. The thicknesses of the layers and the interface type played a major role in determining the cut-off wavelength of the SLS’s.

The work in this thesis was undertaken to explore both the effect of heteroatoms on the semiconducting properties of star-shaped thienoacenes, and to expand the scope of these materials to fields outside of organic semiconductors. Overall, new star-shaped molecules were prepared with a view towards applications such as thin film transistors, as the organic linker component in metal-organic frameworks, and as ligands that could coordinate to transition metals through the sulfur atom. The first chapter describes the properties of star-shaped molecules, the theory underlying their semiconducting behaviour, and the previous work that motivated the research contained herein. The second chapter of this thesis outlines the synthetic methodology that was utilized to achieve the molecular targets, as well as the characterization techniques that are used to reveal the properties of organic semiconductors. The third chapter of this thesis describes the synthesis and optoelectronic properties of novel nitrogen-containing semiconductor molecules called thienoacridines, and their comparison to carbon-and-sulfur based analogues, thienoanthracenes. The fourth and fifth chapters concern the synthesis of functionalized star shaped thienylbenzene molecules. In Chapter 4, these molecules are decorated with carboxylic acid groups so that they may act as tetrapodal MOF linkers. In Chapter 5, they are equipped with N-aryl(azomethine)thiophene moieties to explore sulfur coordination and act as ligands. The sixth chapter provides conclusion to this work, and possible future directions of the research conducted herein.

This work explores the use of computational methods to aid in the design of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for use as CO2 scrubbers in carbon capture and storage applications. One of the main challenges in this field is in identifying important MOF design characteristics which optimize the complex interactions governing surface adsorption. We approach this in a high-throughput manner, determining properties important to CO2 adsorption from generating and sampling a large materials search space. The utilization of MOFs as potential carbon scrubbing agents is a recent phenomenon, as such, many of the computational tools necessary to perform high-throughput screening of MOFs and subsequent analysis are either underdeveloped or non-existent. A large portion of this work therefore involved the development of novel tools designed specifically for this task. The chapters in this work are contiguous with the goal of designing MOFs for CO¬2 capture, and somewhat chronological in order and complexity, meaning as time and expertise progressed, more advanced tools were developed and utilized for the purposes of computational MOF discovery. Initial work towards MOF design involved the detailed analysis of two experimental structures; CALF-15 and CALF-16 using classical molecular dynamics, grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, and DFT to determine the structural features which promote CO2 adsorption. An unprecedented level of agreement was found between theory and experiment, as we are able to capture, with simulation, the X-ray resolved binding sites of CO2 in the confined pores of CALF-15. Molecular simulation was then used to provide a detailed breakdown of the energy contributions from nearby functional groups in both CALF-15 and CALF-16. A large database of hypothetical MOF structures is constructed for the purposes of screening for CO2 adsorption. The database contains 1.3 million hypothetical structures, generated with an algorithm which snaps together rigid molecular building blocks extracted from existing MOF crystal structures. The algorithm for constructing the hypothetical MOFs and the building blocks themselves were all developed in-house to form the resulting database. The topological, chemical, and physical features of these MOFs are compared to recently developed materials databases to demonstrate the larger structural and chemical space sampled by our database. In order to rapidly and accurately describe the electrostatic interactions of CO2 in the hypothetical database of MOFs, parameters were developed for use with the charge equilibration method. This method assigns partial charges on the framework atoms based on a set of parameters assigned to each atom type. An evolutionary algorithm was used to optimize the charge equilibration parameters on a set of 543 hypothetical MOFs such that the partial charges generated would reproduce each MOFs DFT-derived electrostatic potential. Validation of these parameters was performed by comparing the CO2 adsorption from the charge equilibration method vs DFT-derived charges on a separate set of 693 MOFs. Our parameter set were found to reproduce DFT-derived CO2 adsorption extremely well using only a fraction of the time, making this method ideal for rapid and accurate high-throughput MOF screening. A database of 325,000 MOFs was then screened for CO2 capture and storage applications. From this study we identify important binding pockets for CO2 in MOFs using a binding site analysis tool. This tool uses a pattern recognition method to compare the 3-D configurations of thousands of pore structures surrounding strong CO2 adsorption sites, and present common features found amongst them. For the purposes of developing larger databases which sample a more diverse materials space, a novel MOF construction tool is devloped which builds MOFs based on abstract graphs. The graph theoretical foundations of this method are discussed and several examples of MOF construction are presented to demonstrate its use. Notably, not only can it build existing MOFs with complicated geometries, but it can sample a wide range of unique structures not yet discovered by experimental means.

Reducing anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants is an important step in mitigating climate change. To implement carbon dioxide capture technologies, materials capable of removing carbon dioxide efficiently are required. Currently, liquid amine technology is used for carbon dioxide capture. However, the mechanism for carbon dioxide removal in liquid amine requires extraordinary amounts of energy input. Alternatively, solid sorbents such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show promising potentials as a type of material for carbon dioxide capture. Due their varying structural properties, MOFs can be configured for specific purposes. Certain MOFs carry a net charge on their frameworks, which may allow for increased interactions with carbon dioxide molecules. In this work, charged MOFs were studied for their potential in carbon dioxide capture. Due to the massive number of MOFs available, computational methods were employed for the study. This project includes three major components: (1) the development of novel computational methods to simulate the gas adsorption properties in charged materials, (2) a diverse database of 47,244 hypothetical charged MOFs was constructed to represent the capabilities of charged MOFs, and (3) screening of high performing charged MOFs for carbon capture application by combining the previous two portions of the project. The methods developed in this work include fitting intermolecular interaction parameters to quantum mechanical calculations in periodic systems with net charges. No methods have been reported in literature for such parameter fittings, even in well studied materials such as zeolites. Therefore, the gas adsorption estimation method for charged materials developed in this work is proprietary. Also, databases of hypothetical MOFs with framework net charges have never been reported previously in literature. By screening the charged MOFs in the database with the methods developed, gas adsorption capabilities were evaluated. The adsorption properties of a neutral group of hypothetical MOFs were also obtained for a baseline comparison. Between the two groups of MOFs, charged MOFs were found to outperform neutral MOFs in three key aspects. Firstly, charged MOFs were able to adsorb an average of three times as much carbon dioxide than the neutral group. Secondly, charged MOFs were capable of removing twice the amount of carbon dioxide per adsorption/desorption cycle than the neutral MOFs. Lastly, charged MOFs were able to selectively adsorb much more carbon dioxide over other gasses present in the carbon dioxide capture situations. Specific structural features that resulted in the selectiveness of adsorption in charged MOFs were identified. Also, positive correlations were found between the adsorption of carbon dioxide and the charge present in the MOFs. As seen in the results, charges present in MOFs can greatly increase their ability to remove carbon dioxide. Charged MOFs in the hypothetical database not only outperformed neutral MOFs, certain top performers were also found to exceed the requirements for post-combustion carbon capture application. Therefore, charged MOFs were shown to be a possible material for future carbon dioxide capture. The proprietary methods developed in this work can not only be used to simulate gas adsorptions in charged MOFs, but also for other porous materials, regardless of net charges presented in their systems. Also, the database constructed in this work can be utilized in multiple ways. Aside from carbon dioxide capture capabilities, the charged MOFs in the database can be screened for other gas separations and catalysis via high throughput screening. The database and the computational methods developed in this work pave the way for discovering the capabilities of charged materials.

This work explores the fabrication and permeability testing of mixed matrix membranes (MMM) utilising a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) and various fillers. PIM-1 has been chosen for this work due to its high apparent surface area and high sorption of gases. PIM-1 also is a good candidate for gas sorption applications due to the film forming properties of the polymer. The fillers utilised in this work are Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and organic cages, which have been chosen due to the gas sorption properties they exhibit. The MOFs used are micro and nanoparticles of Zeolitic Imidazole Framework-8 (ZIF-8), copper based MOF HKUST-1 and chromium based MOF MIL-101. Micro particles of magnesium based MOF Mg-MOF-74 were also looked at as well as cage 3, nano cage 3 and reduced cage 3. Comparable surface areas of the MOFs compared to those quoted in the literature have been obtained. Successful PIM-1/Filler MMMs were synthesised utilising PIM-1 and the fillers outlined above with various loadings of filler. The highest loading achieved was with a 10:6.4 PIM-1/nanoZIF-8 ratio. All MMMs apart from PIM-1/Mg-MOF-74 MMM were homogenous on a macroscale with scanning electron microscopy proving the dispersion of fillers. Gas transport properties of the MMMs were determined using predominantly a time lag method. PIM-1/ZIF-8 MMMs were also tested using a chromatographic method and using a gas sorption experiment. A range of gases were tested including CO2, N2, CH4, O2, He and H2. Ideal selectivities were also calculated with focus on the gas pairs O2/N2, CO2/CH4 and CO2/N2.When comparing the two permeability methods using the PIM-1/nanoZIF-8 MMM, lower permeability results were found from the time lag method. This was concluded to be due to the aging effect brought about by the vacuum used in the time lag method. The chromatographic method produced positive results with high selectivities, breaking Robeson’s upper bound, for the gas pair O2/N2. All other fillers tested showed an increase in permeability and stable selectivity with an increase in the amount of filler. MIL-101 and Cage 3 were the most successful fillers with high permeabilities of 35600 and 37400 Barrer respectively, encroaching on that of PTMSP. Mg-MOF-74 and reduced cage 3 MMM however, had a detrimental effect on the permeability. Aging data was also investigated which showed that for the majority of MMM the permeability followed the trend of PIM-1. microHKUST-1 and cage 3 of 10:3 loading were shown to give promising results with 10000 and 14300 Barrer respectively compared to 7200 Barrer for PIM-1. Although a loss in permeability is seen, it is still above that of PIM-1 at the same point of aging. These results give a positive indication that MMMs have the potential to provide resistance against aging, a major problem in using high free volume polymers in industrial applications.

This work is aimed at understanding the underlying processes of crystal growth in nanoporous materials at the molecular level utilising computational modelling. The coarse grain Monte Carlo program constructed over a number of works at the CNM has shown success in modelling cubic zeolite systems. The goal of this work is to adapt the program to deal with the complexities of a wide range of different crystal systems. There have been many studies of crystal growth and many problems solved. In zeolites, however, there are still a lot of questions to answer. Growth rates and activation energies for crystal growth processes in zeolites are some of the things that remain unsolved for zeolites. Coarse grain Monte Carlo modelling simplifies the problem and can provide an insight into the underlying processes that govern crystal growth. This study focused its energetics around the formation of stable closed cage surface structures deduced from careful study of the dissolution of zeolite L terraces. Two approaches from an energetic point of view were investigated during the course of this study. The first considered the energetics from an energy of attachment point of view whilst the second focused on the energy of destabilisation with respect to crystal bulk. In this study the crystal growth of the following systems were probed computationally: LTA, SOD, LTL, ERI, OFF. Both zeolite and MOF crystal systems were studied over the course of this work. The algorithm developed in study shows some potential in being able to give insight to experimental crystal growth chemists as to how changing the rates of growth of certain cage structures would affect the overall morphology of the crystal grown. They can then utilise their knowledge of how using certain cations or templates, for example, can alter the stabilisation of certain cage structures to in effect design crystals of desired properties.

Advances in flexible and functional metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), also called soft porous crystals, are reviewed by covering the literature of the five years period 2009–2013 with reference to the early pertinent work since the late 1990s. Flexible MOFs combine the crystalline order of the underlying coordination network with cooperative structural transformability. These materials can respond to physical and chemical stimuli of various kinds in a tunable fashion by molecular design, which does not exist for other known solid-state materials. Among the fascinating properties are so-called breathing and swelling phenomena as a function of host–guest interactions. Phase transitions are triggered by guest adsorption/desorption, photochemical, thermal, and mechanical stimuli. Other important flexible properties of MOFs, such as linker rotation and sub-net sliding, which are not necessarily accompanied by crystallographic phase transitions, are briefly mentioned as well. Emphasis is given on reviewing the recent progress in application of in situ characterization techniques and the results of theoretical approaches to characterize and understand the breathing mechanisms and phase transitions. The flexible MOF systems, which are discussed, are categorized by the type of metal-nodes involved and how their coordination chemistry with the linker molecules controls the framework dynamics. Aspects of tailoring the flexible and responsive properties by the mixed component solid-solution concept are included, and as well examples of possible applications of flexible metal–organic frameworks for separation, catalysis, sensing, and biomedicine.