Lu Wei presents Schroder with a commemorative plaque in recognition of his contribution.

Professor Martin Schroder, a member of the European Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, recently visited Wuhan University (WHU) to deliver the 517th lecture of the Luojia Forum series.

Schroder, who is also vice-president and dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Manchester, presented a talk titled "Porous Metal-Organic Framework Materials for Substrate Capture, Separation, and Catalysis".

Lu Wei, vice-president of WHU, presented Schroder with a commemorative plaque in recognition of his contribution.

Schroder highlighted the focus of global research on developing stable porous materials with rapid kinetics and high reversibility for capturing and converting toxic gases such as SO₂ and NO₂, as well as fuel gases like CO₂, NH₃, and CH₄.

He provided a comprehensive overview of the synthesis, structural characterization, and gas-adsorption properties of a series of stable carboxylate-linked metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, emphasizing the in situ structural and kinetic studies of gas-loaded materials, and presented groundbreaking experiments that validated their separation effectiveness under both dry and humid conditions.

He also delved into the design and development of novel heterogeneous MOF catalysts, covering key applications such as C-C coupling, oxidation of benzyl compounds, reduction of CO₂ and NO₂, and the conversion of methane to methanol.

Faculty and students engaged with cutting-edge topics such as the application of artificial intelligence in material screening, the mechanism of guest molecule filling within MOF pores, and the reproducibility of experimental data.

Schroder is renowned for his pioneering work in the design, synthesis, and structural analysis of multifunctional MOF materials, as well as their applications in gas adsorption, separation, and catalytic conversion.

His achievements have earned him numerous prestigious international honors, including the Corday-Morgan Prizes, Tilden Prize, and Nyholm Prize for Inorganic Chemistry.

Martin Schroder gives a talk on porous framework design.