EPSRC Project Proposals 2026/27 - PhD Studentship - Synthesis and Optimisation of Stimuli Responsive Metal-Organic Frameworks in Flow

Number of positions: 1

Eligibility: UK only

Funding: School of Chemistry Studentship, providing the award of full academic fees, together with a tax-free maintenance grant at the standard UKRI rate (currently £20,780 for academic session 2025/26) per year for 3.5 years.

Lead Supervisor’s full name & email address

Dr Andrea Laybourn: A.Laybourn@leeds.ac.uk

Project summary

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of porous coordination polymers comprised of metal clusters/ions and organic linkers. MOFs show great potential for a wide range of applications in areas such as energy, environmental sustainability, and healthcare. The ability to control the pore environment of the MOF is one of their remarkable advantages and enables control over the structure and properties required for specific applications. Despite these advantages, the process of taking MOFs from discovery to scale-up and commercial exploitation take many years since current methods of MOF production are poorly reproducible, unsustainable, and conditions optimised in batch are not readily translatable to scaled up processing. We have demonstrated that microwave heating and flow chemistry are able to provide distinct processing advantages in the synthesis of MOFs owing to selective heating [1-5].

This project will build on our development of microwave flow reactor platforms for the discovery, optimisation, and scale-up of MOFs specifically targeting stimuli-responsive materials with new structures and particle characteristics. This will be underpinned by investigating the MOF self-assembly processes and structure-property relationships using a range of in-, on- and off-line characterisation techniques including X-ray and electron diffraction, electron microscopy, IR and UV-vis spectroscopies, and gas sorption.

This project combines flow and materials chemistry, characterisation, and reaction optimisation. You will gain skills in synthetic co-ordination chemistry, advanced characterisation techniques, machine learning and operation of flow chemistry platforms. This project would be ideal for an ambitious and innovative researcher who enjoys working in a diverse and interdisciplinary team and is excited to learn new skills.

References:

1. Laybourn et al. Chem. Eng. J., DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2018.09.011
2. Woodliffe et al. Mater. Adv., DOI: 10.1039/D3MA00351E
3. Thomas-Hillman et al. Green Chem., DOI: 10.1039/C9GC02375E
4. Laybourn et al. PCCP, DOI: 10.1039/C5CP05426E
5. Laybourn et al. J. Mater. Chem. A 10.1039/C7TA01493

Please state your entry requirements plus any necessary or desired background

A first class or an upper second class British Bachelors Honours degree (or equivalent) in a chemistry or related discipline.

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