Faculty Director: Omar M. Yaghi
Faculty Contact for BASF California Scholars Program: Richard Kaner
The mission of CRC is to provide national and international leadership in all aspects of reticular chemistry research and development,
and to establish CNSI as an intellectual hub for researchers in the field. Reticular chemistry was invented by CRC members in the 1990s
and it is concerned with linking of molecular building blocks of synthetic and biological origin into predetermined structure
using strong bonds. This chemistry has led to the design and synthesis of new materials with unparalleled diversity. CRC members
are leading a revolution in the invention of new classes of porous crystalline materials among such are those called metal-organic
frameworks (MOFs). They have nanopores that can be functionalized by organic units and their metrics varied at will. MOFs have surface
areas up to 6000 m2/g and are the least dense crystals known. To date over 3,000 new compositions of MOFs have been reported
and studied for their applications in hydrogen storage, methane transport, carbon dioxide capture, polymerization catalysis, gas and
liquid separations, magnetism, electronics and proton conduction. CRC boasts the prestigious BASF California Scholars which brings to
UCLA the best and brightest young researchers from around the world to carry out interdisciplinary projects which advance this technology
to other fields including engineering, mathematics, biology, physics and medicine.
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