Latest Group News
Limitless applications': the 'magic powder' that could prevent future crises
The magic powder (MOFs) found by the sciensits are the potential solutions for the global food and water crisis. One teaspoon of these crystals contain the surface area of an entire football field, and scientists have been able to customise them to absorb and store vast quantities of a desired substance. MOFs can be applied to just about any purpose. The obstacle has long been producing enough of them at a cheap enough cost to be of any practical use. Over in Australia, at the CSIRO, Professor Matt Hill is leading the charge to find a way to make what he calls his “magic powder” commercially viable. In 2008, the team could only produce a teaspoon a week. Today CSIRO’s startup MOFWORX can produce 10kg per hour on their pilot reactor using a continuous process 20 times more efficient than the conventional batch process.
The magic powder (MOFs) found by the sciensits are the potential solutions for the global food and water crisis. One teaspoon of these crystals contain the surface area of an entire football field, and scientists have been able to customise them to absorb and store vast quantities of a desired substance. MOFs can be applied to just about any purpose. The obstacle has long been producing enough of them at a cheap enough cost to be of any practical use. Over in Australia, at the CSIRO, Professor Matt Hill is leading the charge to find a way to make what he calls his “magic powder” commercially viable. In 2008, the team could only produce a teaspoon a week. Today CSIRO’s startup MOFWORX can produce 10kg per hour on their pilot reactor using a continuous process 20 times more efficient than the conventional batch process.
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The new faces of science - Dr Matthew Hill in CSIRO Seven group
In 2015, Dr. Matthew Hill was among the CSIRO seven brightest young scientists. CSIRO has pulled seven of its brightest young scientists out of their labs and enlisted them in a campaign to recruit future thinkers, innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs. Known as the CSIRO seven, the group comes from different areas of the organisation’s science and also from across its 54 sites around Australia. |
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Dr. Matthew Hill is the recipient of 2014 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year
For his work on the development of metal–organic frameworks for practical industrial application, Dr Matthew Hill, Australian Research Council Future Fellow and leader of the Integrated Nanoporous Materials team at CSIRO, has been awarded the 2014 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year. |
2014 Australia-Korea Foundation Grant for "Contemporary Materials for Carbon Capture"
In 2014, Dr. Cher Hon (Sam) Lau has been awarded a grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to work on “Contemporary Materials for Carbon Capture” with Professor Young-Moo Lee from Hanyang University, Korea.
The project focuses on using a new class of porous materials, known as metal organic frameworks to improve the separation properties of plastics. The tunable empty spaces in metal organic frameworks will be utilized for enhanced molecular transport and alternative energy storage of plastics.
In 2014, Dr. Cher Hon (Sam) Lau has been awarded a grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to work on “Contemporary Materials for Carbon Capture” with Professor Young-Moo Lee from Hanyang University, Korea.
The project focuses on using a new class of porous materials, known as metal organic frameworks to improve the separation properties of plastics. The tunable empty spaces in metal organic frameworks will be utilized for enhanced molecular transport and alternative energy storage of plastics.
"Game changing crystals will clean the air"
Dr. Marta Rubio Martinez in Fresh Science National Event
This is a game changer for MOF technology. We increased the production yield from only 1 gram in ten days to several kilograms per hour, without any loss in quality. These crystals have a sponge-like structure, porous structure, which creates an enormous amount of surface area, where up to 80% of the space around the particles is unoccupied/empty. One gram of these crystals has the same surface as an entire football field. For example, a tank filled with our nanocrystals could store up to ten times more carbon dioxide gas within the same volume. The reactions to create these materials are usually slow and yield only a few milligrams of high quality crystals – not enough to provide cost effective real world applications to, for example, energy and transportation industries. But Instead of making the reaction vessel bigger, we pumped the ingredients through a small tube which gives us enough surface to create the crystals, this dramatically reduced the reaction times from days to minutes explains Marta", revealed Marta.
Dr. Marta Rubio Martinez in Fresh Science National Event
This is a game changer for MOF technology. We increased the production yield from only 1 gram in ten days to several kilograms per hour, without any loss in quality. These crystals have a sponge-like structure, porous structure, which creates an enormous amount of surface area, where up to 80% of the space around the particles is unoccupied/empty. One gram of these crystals has the same surface as an entire football field. For example, a tank filled with our nanocrystals could store up to ten times more carbon dioxide gas within the same volume. The reactions to create these materials are usually slow and yield only a few milligrams of high quality crystals – not enough to provide cost effective real world applications to, for example, energy and transportation industries. But Instead of making the reaction vessel bigger, we pumped the ingredients through a small tube which gives us enough surface to create the crystals, this dramatically reduced the reaction times from days to minutes explains Marta", revealed Marta.