TIME CHANGED!!
Clean Air and Water: Crafting Molecular Solutions through Crystal Engineering
Abstract
Crystal engineering focuses upon the design, properties, and applications of crystals, while reticular chemistry involves linking molecular building blocks through strong metal-organic or carbon-carbon bonds to create extended crystalline structures. The intersection of these areas is evident in the growing popularity of porous coordination networks (PCNs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), the two prototypal reticular solid classes amenable to crystal engineering design strategies, i.e., built from metal-organic and organic molecular building blocks, respectively. Several recent reports, including our own group’s contributions highlight how controlling the pore size and chemistry of PCNs and polymer-PCN hybrids has enabled the development of efficient physisorbents for hydrocarbon (HC) separation and freshwater purification from persistent and mobile organic chemicals (PMOCs, including forever chemicals). The drive to design such sorbents stems from the need to replace energy-intensive HC separation methods with energy-efficient, recyclable alternatives. Thanks to physisorption, these sorbents, offering strong and selective binding of HCs, present key advantages: better energy efficiency, and reduced plant size and cost.1-2 However, most existing physisorbents are handicapped from weak HC binding: low adsorption capacity or poor selectivity, especially at low concentrations, making them unsuitable for large-scale and trace separations. In Mukherjee Group, we analyse several classes of reticular sorbents, exploring how crystal engineering strategies can enable precise structural control for high HC selectivity and water purification. Despite these advances, challenges remain to be addressed for commercial adoption.
This seminar will focus on the several challenges associated with advancing the state-of-the-art in physisorbent design. At the heart of this field is the use of bottom-up nanomaterial design principles, applying crystal engineering approaches to develop advanced adsorbents.3 Key takeaways include new scientific understandings of sorption performances that address commodity chemical separations, including freshwater purifications. The overarching goal is set at meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good Health and Well-being), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), and 13 (Climate action).4
Keywords: crystal engineering, reticular materials, coordination networks, hydrocarbons, adsorptive separation; binding sites
References
1. S. Mukherjee, N. R. Champness, Nat. Rev. Chem. 2024, 8, 6–7.
2. S. Mukherjee, M. J. Zaworotko, Trends in Chemistry, 2020, 2, 506 – 518.
3. S. Mukherjee, K. K. R. Datta, R. A. Fischer, Trends Chem. 2021, 3, 911-925.
4. 17 Goals to Transform Our World, United Nations, https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/, accessed on 18th July 2025.
Bio
Dr Soumya Mukherjee, an Associate Professor in Materials Chemistry at the Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Limerick, is an early-career academic with an outstanding research record. Prof Mukherjee (SM) has won the University of Limerick President’s Research Excellence and Impact Award 2022, the Mid-Career Researcher Award 2024 from the Bernal Institute, the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award 2025, and has secured several competitive research grants from Research Ireland, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the EU Commission, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. With >100 peer-reviewed publications and >10,000 citations in materials chemistry, SM has featured in the Stanford University’s list of globally highly cited (top 2%) researchers for four years in a row. SM’s research team develops advanced porous materials, including organic and metal-organic polymers to address the global grand challenges in chemical purification, air, and water treatment. SM’s most impactful contributions to date address benchmark materials for water purification, trace carbon capture and hydrocarbon purification. Put simply, SM’s approach—tapping into surface and interfacial chemistry in functionalised porous polymers, particularly crystalline frameworks, both organic and metal-organic—is forward-leaning, and a clear step beyond the status quo.