The beauty of symmetry and love of chemistry
Chapter of the Young Talents Competition selected finalists! Among them, in the “Scientific Success” category, is our PhD student Marzena Pander.
Under the guidance of dr hab. inż. Wojciech Bury in UWr Faculty of Chemistry she is carrying out her doctoral thesis on the design, synthesis, and characterisation of Metal-Organic Frameworks, which are porous materials with unique properties.
We invite you to read an interview with our doctoral student who introduces the subject of her research.
Let’s start by explaining what porous materials are.
Marzena Pander: These materials contain voids (pores), which are filled with particles of so-called guests. An example of porous material from our everyday life can be a sponge. The process of adsorption of guest molecules in its pores can be associated with the moment of soaking the sponge with water when washing the dishes or taking a bath. We know many natural porous materials, for example, pumice or zeolites (otherwise called boiling stones).
How about Metal-Organic Frameworks?
– Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are an example of synthetic porous materials, meaning we can design and then obtain them. They are composed of two main components (clusters and linkers), which together create a coordinated network containing voids (pores) of a specific shape and size.
Just like Lego?
– Exactly. The aforementioned clusters and linkerscan be seen as two types of Lego blocks, which in a process of self-assembly connect and create an infinite network (MOF material). Our task is to choose blocks in such a way as to create a specific construction but at the nano level.
As a part of your research, you deal with obtaining MOF materials and their post-synthetic modification. Could you please elaborate?
– If we look at the MOF network as a structure built from two types of Lego blocks, the post-synthetic modification is like adding a third type of block. These new building units could be metal cations or organic molecules and can be added to the MOF network through a variety of strategies. Such modification allows for giving it new functions as well as further exploration of its potential application.
What kind of applications?
– My research included, for example, the use of MOF materials for the controlled release of medicine molecules, catalytic conversion of CO2 (a greenhouse gas), or obtaining hybrids of MOF materials and organic polymers, which can be used to neutralize poisonous substances (such as combat gases).
In the history of the University, we had a tragic figure of a certain researcher. The first female doctor, Clara Immerwahr-Haber. Was she in the same field as you?
– Yes, the figure of Clara Immerwahr-Haber became a kind of inspiration for me. Not only was she the first female doctor at the University of Wrocław, but also a chemist. Just over 100 years later, I am preparing to defend my own doctoral thesis.
The tragic story of Clara Immerwahr-Haber is closely connected to the story of her husband, Fritz Haber. On the one hand, he greatly contributed to humanity by developing the ammonia synthesis process with Carl Bosch (Nobel Prize in 1918). On the other hand, his research on gases during World War I (including the Battle of Ypres) contributed to the death of thousands of people as a result of chlorine gas poisoning. Clara Immerwahr took her own life in protest against her husband’s activities. Interestingly, in my research, I obtain materials that can immediately neutralize such toxic substances.
What does the term “unique properties” mean? How can these materials be used?
– The uniqueness refers to the sorption properties of MOF materials, which are related to the presence of pores in their structure. Thanks to this MOF networks can have a high specific surface area, exceeding 7000m2/g. In other words, just 1 gram of such a material can cover the surface of a football field (7000m2). Hence, many applications of MOF materials are related to their use in gas absorption and separation processes.
For example?
– One of the most well-known applications of MOF materials is their ability to store hydrogen (green energy) or adsorption of water from the air (even in the desert). Additionally, the pores of MOF materials can be used as reservoirs for chemical reactions, i.e., as advanced nanoreactors. To this, we can add the function of a reaction catalyst and create “two-in-one” systems. But that is still in the future…
Moreover, the richness and variety of building units give virtually unlimited possibilities for finding a function for these materials. This way, we create original research objects whose properties and applications are not known yet. The role of a chemist is to search for new possibilities of such materials, which means that we operate on the edge of the current state of knowledge. At the same time, the continuous development of technology and research equipment allows us to understand advanced materials better and continue the exploration.
What makes this particular field interesting to you?
– The beauty of symmetry and the exceptional precision with which the MOF crystal lattices are created, along with their unique sorption properties, are things that particularly fascinate me in this research. We all admire the beauty of minerals at exhibitions, and these are masterpieces created by nature.
Why did you choose this scientific path?
– I first heard about issues related to supramolecular chemistry and porous materials during the last year of my undergraduate studies, during the lectures of Professor Jerzy Lisowski. It undoubtedly made a great impression on me and determined my next steps in my scientific career. Additionally, I developed my interests by being active in the “Jeż” Scientific Association of Chemists. It seemed to be a natural choice to pursue my master’s thesis (and later the doctoral thesis) under the guidance of dr Wojciech Bury, an outstanding specialist in this field. He gave me the opportunity for further scientific development. Research on MOF networks is a dynamically developing field of materials science. It is currently being pursued by many research groups in the world. That makes it incredibly interesting and surprising.
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Marzena Pander is a recipient of two research grants. From 2018 to 2019, as a project manager, she carried out a grant from the special-purpose subsidy of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education Design, synthesis and exploration of new bimetallic inorganic-organic polymers using tandem post-synthetic modification. The second is a National Science Centre Grant Preludium – Design and synthesis of multifunctional composites based on metallic-organic networks and organic polymers for separation of small molecules, as a project manager. She has won multiple stipends and awards at conferences in Poland and abroad. The latest one is a stipend from the Foundation for Polish Science START 2023. This year’s finalist of the 7th Young Talents Competition.
The winners in each of the six categories of the Young Talents Competition will be announced on Monday, May 22nd, at a ceremonial gala. The ceremony will start at 7:00 PM in Aula Leopoldina of the University of Wrocław. Fingers crossed!
Katarzyna Górowicz-Maćkiewicz interviewed.
Translated by Klaudia Kaczmarek (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
