Fall Chem501 Seminar

UT Host: Dr. Sheng Dai

Speaker: Dr. Pingyun Feng

Professor/Inorganic Chemistry/Materials Chemistry

University of California, Riverside

Title: “Crystalline Porous Materials Synthesis, Properties and Applications”

Abstract: The presentation will focus on two types of porous materials. One is metal chalcogenide tetrahedral clusters that can self-assemble to form zeolite-type crystalline porous materials. Single-sized tetrahedral metal chalcogenide clusters act as building blocks to form well-ordered three-dimensional zeolite-type materials in the presence of either organic or inorganic species as structure directing agents. The structural analysis based on single crystals reveals detailed compositional and structural information. The diversity of superlattices can be achieved by modifying cluster size, cluster composition, and inter-cluster linkage mode. The second type of porous materials is metal-organic framework materials (MOFs). Strategies for the synthesis of new porous MOFs will be discussed, with the focus on the use of different metallic elements and their various combinations. In addition, the talk will cover our recent efforts and strategies developed on functionalizing MOF for enhancing gas sorption through pore space partitioning and engineering. The pore space of MOF can be engineered by using extra-framework ligands, metal complexes, or nested cage-in-cage configurations to tune the gas sorption properties. The development of the optimal pore architectures for enhanced gas sorption will be covered.  These represent a family of fascinating crystalline porous materials, because of their highly tunable compositions, structures, and properties.

Bio: Pingyun Feng received her PhD in 1998 from Department of Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). After two years of postdoctoral study at Department of Chemical Engineering, UCSB, She joined University of California at Riverside in 2000.  Feng’s research focuses on the synthesis, characterization and application of various types of functional solid-state materials. These materials range from porous metal-organic framework materials to high-surface area semiconductors based on metal chalcogenides. Her group has published more than 240 peer-reviewed scientific papers, most of which are in prestigious high-impact journals. Her accomplishments have been recognized by the Beckman Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, and Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award and also an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow award. She is also the Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She received the ACS 2017 F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry and most recently she received the 2020 Richard C. Tolman Award from the Southern California Section of the American Chemical Society.