PhD Studentship: CENTA 2027-B09 Greener MOF nanogels for water remediation and critical mineral recovery

Persistent organic pollutants, toxic metals and dyes threaten water quality, while discarded products and industrial residues contain valuable critical minerals. Sorbents can lose performance or release their own components as water chemistry changes. This project will develop greener metal–organic framework (MOF) nanogels and determine how their transformations govern remediation, resource recovery and environmental safety.

MOFs are porous solids with tunable binding sites. We will test whether confinement within hydrated biopolymer networks limits framework release while preserving accessible binding sites. You will prepare a small set of formulations using aqueous or reduced-solvent routes, then examine capture under different pH, dissolved organic matter and competing-ion conditions. Screening will cover persistent PFAS, represented by PFOA/PFOS, heavy metals and dyes. Detailed studies will focus on the most promising combinations. A separate pathway will test recovery of rare-earth elements, including neodymium and dysprosium, from secondary aqueous resources.

Building on our MOF remediation and transformation research, the project will connect structural and chemical changes to performance throughout synthesis, gelation, capture, regeneration and end-of-life ageing. Metal and linker release measurements, combined with pollutant mass balances, will identify potential secondary contamination. Mineral recovery will be assessed through desorption yield and product purity.

Safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) will guide material selection. You will compare treatment performance, aquatic effects, chemical and energy inputs, waste generation and reuse against relevant commercial sorbents. The outcome will be experimentally supported design rules for water treatment and resource recovery, identifying conditions that preserve useful performance while limiting environmental harm.

For further information on this project and details of how to apply to it please visit https://centa.ac.uk/studentship/2027-b09-greener-mof-nanogels-for-water-remediation-and-critical-mineral-recovery/

Further information on how to apply for a CENTA studentship can be found on the CENTA website: https://centa.ac.uk/apply/

Funding notes:
This project is offered through the CENTA3 DLA, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Funding covers: annual stipend, tuition fees (at home-fee level), Research Training Support Grant.

Academic requirements: at least a 2:1 at UK BSc level or a pass at UK MSc level or equivalent.

Further information: https://centa.ac.uk/apply/

International students are eligible for studentships to a maximum of 30% of the cohort. Funding does not cover any additional costs relating to moving or residing in the UK. International applicants must fulfil the University of Birmingham’s international student entry requirements, including English language.  Further information: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/pgt/requirements-pgt/international/index.aspx.

References:

Bhadane, P. and Chakraborty, S. (2025) ‘Cellulose acetate-nanoMOF beads: a safe, sustainable and scalable solution for Pb remediation in complex water systems’, Environmental Science: Nano 12, pp. 3329–3341. doi: 10.1039/D5EN00056D

Bhadane, P. and Chakraborty, S. (2025) ‘Cross-material synergies of carbon nanomaterials, MOFs, and COFs: Innovative approaches for sustainable environmental remediation and resource recovery’, Coordination Chemistry Reviews 535, 216669. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2025.216669

Fu, Q., Wen, L., Zhang, L., Chen, X., Pun, D., Ahmed, A., Yang, Y. and Zhang, H. (2017) ‘Preparation of Ice-Templated MOF–Polymer Composite Monoliths and Their Application for Wastewater Treatment with High Capacity and Easy Recycling’, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 9, pp. 33979–33988. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b10872

Chakraborty, S. and Lynch, I. (2025) ‘Biomolecular Transformations Shape the Environmental Fate of Nanoscale and Emerging Materials’, Accounts of Chemical Research. doi: 10.1021/acs.accounts.5c00587

Chakraborty, S., Menon, D., Mikulska, I., Pfrang, C., Fairen-Jimenez, D., Misra, S. K. and Lynch, I. (2025) ‘Make metal–organic frameworks safe and sustainable by design for industrial translation’, Nature Reviews Materials. doi: 10.1038/s41578-025-00774-6.

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