Metal-organic frameworks as a platform for understanding molecular-scale thermal transport phenomena

Christopher E. Wilmer (Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department, University of Pittsburgh)

There are still many unresolved questions about nanoscale thermal transport, despite its importance for a wide range of applications, from heat dissipation in ever-smaller electronics, to sorbent-based heat pumps, to heterogeneous catalysis and industrial chemical separations processes. Specifically, there are questions about how heat is transported in materials that are porous, or have large, complex unit cells, where typical assumptions about phonon behavior breakdown. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), due to their crystallinity and tunability, are ideal platforms for controlled investigation of thermal transport phenomena since one can independently control a variety of important variables, such as pore size, void fraction, atomic masses, and so on. Importantly, after more than a decade of cooperation between experimental and computational MOF researchers, we can routinely compare observations from both measurement and theory on essentially the exact same system. In this talk, I will present recent investigations into the thermal transport behavior of MOFs from a modeling perspective, with some insights from preliminary experimental work as well.

Biography: Prof. Wilmer's research focuses on the use of large-scale molecular simulations to help find promising materials for energy and environmental applications. Using supercomputers managed by the Center for Simulation and Modeling at the University of Pittsburgh, his research group explores millions of hypothetical materials and then works with experimental collaborators to synthesize the best ones. Specific research efforts are aimed at designing porous materials for natural gas storage and separations, electrodes for batteries, and supramolecular structures for nano-manufacturing applications.
Chris was born in Canada to Polish parents who immigrated to Canada shortly before Poland went under martial law in 1981. Spurred by nanotechnology-driven visions of the future penned by writers Erik Drexler and Ray Kurzweil, Chris acquired a B.A.Sc. degree from the University of Toronto's Engineering Science-Nanoengineering program. Coming to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Northwestern under the mentorship of Prof. Randall Q. Snurr, he took an interest in the American way of developing new technologies-through entrepreneurship. While still a student, he co-founded, NuMat Technologies, which develops commercial gas storage solutions using MOFs.

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