Principal Investigator Zachary Smith
Project Website http://smithlab.mit.edu/
Research focuses on the rational design, synthesis, and characterization of polymers and porous materials for applications in energy-efficient separations, energy storage, and catalysis.
Polymer Membranes -- Polymers can be synthetically tailored to control molecular interactions and diffusion rates in thin films. We focus on understanding the fundamental relationships between how polymer chemistry and the sub-nanometer spacing between polymer chains affects mass transfer.
Metal-Organic Frameworks -- Composed of metal cations connected to organic linkers, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline, permanently porous coordination solids. The chemistry and structure of these materials can be precisely designed for a variety of applications in separations, gas storage, and catalysis.
Separation Processes -- Separations are responsible for 10 - 15% of the world's energy consumption and 16% of direct CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. We seek to design practical systems for mitigating energy-inefficiency and the environmental footprint from traditional separation devices used in industry today.