Emerging Investigator: Yuanbin Zhang
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Read Yuanbin Zhang’s Emerging Investigator Series article on Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers and learn more about him.
| A new boron cluster anion pillared metal organic framework with ligand inclusion and its selective acetylene capture properties | ||
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A novel microporous boron cluster pillared metal–organic framework BSF-10 was synthesized with ligand inclusion for efficient C2H2/CO2 and C2H2/C2H4 adsorption separation. |
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| From the themed collection: Frontiers Emerging Investigator Series | ||
| The article was first published on 19 Jul 2022 | ||
| Inorg. Chem. Front., 2022, Advance Article | ||
| https://doi.org/10.1039/D2QI00890D |
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My research interest
| Key words: metal-organic frameworks, supramolecular organic frameworks, gas separation, porous materials, boron cluster chemistry |
| My research interests mainly focus on the design of new porous materials for selective gas separation (light hydrocarbon splitting, carbon dioxide capture, etc). The gas separation based on traditional distillation method is highly energy-intensive. My work is to design suitable porous adsorbent to realize energy-efficient adsorptive separation of gas mixtures and investigate the structure-property relationship by experiments and theoretical calculation. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and supramolecular organic frameworks (SOFs) are two main materials that I focus on. For different gas mixtures, I design materials with customized properties to recognize the difference. The ultimate target is to achieve efficient gas separation with both high adsorption capacity and high selectivity. Boron cluster anion hybrid supramolecular metal organic frameworks (BSFs) are a new series of crystalline porous materials developed in my group, which have shown benchmark separation performance for C3H8/C2H6/CH4, C2H2/C2H4 and C2H2/CO2 separation. For gas molecules with high polarity, I introduce electronegative elements (F/O) into MOFs’s pore surface to enhance the host-guest interaction. By this strategy, our group have developed a novel MOF termed as ZNU-2 (ZNU = Zhejiang Normal University) for benchmark C3H4/C3H6 separation. |
10 Facts about me
| I published my first academic article in European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry in 2015. It is also the first paper of my PhD research group. I spent nearly two years to finish the work but a Germany group reported a similar results before me.
I chose chemistry as a career because I want to be a scientist since very young and my middle school science teacher piqued my interest in chemistry. An accomplishment I’m particularly proud of is the design of the first boron cluster anion pillared supramolecular metal organic framework, which displays a new application of anionic boron clusters. This work was published in Angewandte Chemie in 2019. One of my hidden talents is cooking. I will be a good cooker if I am not a researcher. My favourite sport is badminton. I ever obtained 3rd Prize of badminton competition in high school. A key experience in my education was my visiting time at UCLA. During that stay, I made the decision of changing my research field from organic chemistry to MOFs that I am still insisting on. The biggest challenge facing me is to get funding as well as to manage the time. The most important thing I learned from my students is that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. It is my job to help them become the best version of themselves. My most important role models are the advisors Duttwyler, Spokoyny, and Xing during my PhD and postdoc study. They are all great scientists and I learned a lot of things from them. Guaranteed to make me happy is making progress every day and having new discovery from my lab. |
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