Water, energy, and the environment were listed as part of the “Top Ten Problems Facing Humanity Over the Next 50 Years" by Nobel Laureate, Dr Richard Smalley. Major separation challenges underpin these areas. Take for instance CO2 capture: here, one wishes to separate CO2 from other flue gas (or ambient air) components. Significantly, separation processes account for 10 to 15% of the world energy consumption.
In our group, we design, synthesise, characterise and test porous materials (i.e. sorbents) that can address separation challenges related to environmental and energy sustainability. When relevant and possible, we confer our materials a photocatalytic property in addition to their sorptive nature as a way to intensify processes. This leads to the creation of multifunctional materials. Our main focus is on porous nitrides (i.e. boron nitride and carbon nitride), metal organic frameworks, porous polymers and composites thereof for applications in molecular separations and solar energy conversion.