DESIGN E SINTESI DI SOLIDI IBRIDI FOTOCROMATICI O CHIRALI

Hybrid porous materials have become one of the most promising classes of synthetic compounds. These materials have potential applications in various fields, from gas storage purification and separation, heterogeneous catalysis, breathing or even controlled drug delivery. In this project MOFs (Metal Organic Frameworks) will be functionalized by photochromic ligands, which have been used only very recently in that purpose, like diarylethene-based carboxylates and pyridine. The final goal is to achieve reversible photoswitching of the MOFs and to control the porosity for gas storage, making these materials potential promising news sensors. Based on recent preliminary studies in Rennes, the project will deal with the solvothermal synthesis of the MOFs with original diarylethene-based ligands furnished by a collaborator in Rennes, the structure determination from single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction data, coming from in situ powder diffraction study on these new materials as a function of temperature, atmosphere and UV light. The insight will be of crucial importance in the understanding of photochromic properties of the MOFs.