Assembly, disassembly, reassembly - New Routes to Extended Structures and Their Impact

扩展结构的新制备方法被正确地强调为对英国非常重要。EPSRC Grand Challenge“定向组装具有目标特性的扩展结构”（简称DA Grand Challenge）由英国一些领先的学术科学家倡导。制药公司对此计划的兴趣非常浓厚，特别是基于Grand Challenge文档中概述的成核和结晶目标。大挑战网络对其他领域的影响要小得多，尽管挑战的基本前提显然适用于许多其他部门。在这个既定的职业建议中，我的愿景是通过变革性科学和个人领导力来展示DA大挑战理念的核心原则如何跨学科翻译。我将特别关注两个领域，增加网络在化学品领域的影响，特别强调非均相沸石催化剂的变革性新路线（非常适合EPSRC的另一个优先领域），以及医疗递送剂的新型多功能性。拟议的计划是坚定地植根于EPSRC的职权范围，但旨在向外看，以最大限度地提高跨学科的影响，跨越科学的其他重要领域。这里提出的具体科学重点是纳米多孔材料。沸石是我们所拥有的最重要的一类工业应用催化剂之一。将沸石操纵成分级多孔结构和超薄层作为将新的和有益的特征引入沸石催化剂的方法也已经变得非常突出。《科学》杂志将这类研究评为当前科学十大最重要的领域之一，因此其重要性在国际上得到认可。金属有机框架（MOFs）是过去十年左右制备的一些最令人兴奋和快速发展的材料。这些固体的化学性质的巨大通用性导致超高孔隙率、极高的灵活性、合成后改性潜力和许多其他有趣且可想象的有用属性。由于这种广泛的化学和功能，这些固体的潜在应用范围从气体储存，分离和输送，催化和传感一直到生物学和医学。

New methods for the preparation of extended structures are rightly highlighted as being of great importance to the UK. The EPSRC Grand Challenge 'Directed Assembly of Extended Structures with Targeted Properties' (referred to as the DA Grand Challenge) is championed by some of the UK's leading academic scientists. Interest from pharmaceutical companies in this initiative has been excellent, particularly based on the nucleation and crystallisation targets outlined in the Grand Challenge Documentation. Impact of the Grand Challenge Network on other areas is much less evident, although it is clear that the basic premise of the Challenge fits many other sectors. In this Established Career Proposal my vision is to demonstrate, through both transformative science and personal leadership, how the central tenets of the DA Grand Challenge Idea can be translated across disciplines. In particular I will focus on two areas, increasing the impact of the network in the chemicals sector, with a special emphasis on transformative new routes to heterogeneous zeolite catalysts (which strongly fits another EPSRC priority area), and novel multifunctionality in medical delivery agents. The proposed programme is firmly rooted in the EPSRC remit but is designed to be outward looking to maximise transdisciplinary impact cutting across to other important areas of science.The specific science proposed here focuses on nanoporous materials. Zeolites are one of the most important class of industrially applied catalysts we have. Manipulation of zeolites into hierarchical porous structures and ultra-thin layers has also risen to great prominence as a method of introducing new and beneficial features into zeolite catalysts. The journal Science rated this type of research as one of the ten most important current areas of current science, and so its importance is recognised internationally. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are some of the most exciting and fast-developing materials that have been prepared in the last decade or so. The great versatility of the chemistry of these solids leads to ultra-high porosity, extreme flexibility, post synthetic modification potential and many other interesting and conceivably useful attributes. Because of this wide ranging chemistry and function, potential applications of these solids range from gas storage, separation and delivery, catalysis, and sensing all the way to biology and medicine.