Welcome to the Snurr Research Site!

We are researching how nanoporous materials can (help to) save the world.
We are interested in novel materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), as well as traditional materials like zeolites that are already widely used in industry. Porous materials with well-controlled structures at the nanoscale can be extremely useful because of their ability to recognize and discriminate between adsorbed molecules. This leads to applications of nanoporous materials in adsorption separations, catalysis, membrane processes, sensing, and energy storage.


News


  • January 2012: Our research is featured on the cover of Nature Chemistry in their February 2012 issue (pictured on right)! (link to article)

  • January 2012: Our research collaboration with Prof. Fraser Stoddart's group on "sugar MOFs" is highlighted in Science!

  • December 2011: Chris Wilmer is profiled in the latest issue of McCormick magazine.

  • November 2011: Prof. Randall Snurr has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Congratulations! Randy was elected for advancing the application of nanoporous metal-organic frameworks in energy storage and separations and showing the power of molecular simulation to design new materials.

  • November 2011: "Large-scale screening of hypothetical metal-organic frameworks" published in Nature Chemistry. Read about it in Chemistry World in their article "Predicting the perfect MOF" or in Chemical & Engineering News in their article "Dial-A-MOF".

  • September 2011: Ben Sikora received the George Thodos Teaching Assistant Award. Congratulations!

  • August 2011: Chris Wilmer has been awarded a terminal-year fellowship. Congratulations!

  • July 2011: Congratulations to Prof. Snurr for winning the Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology for 2011 from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Presentation of Randy's award will take place at the Institute's Honors Ceremony, held during AIChE's 2011 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The ceremony is scheduled for the evening of Sunday, October 16.

  • June 2011: Patrick Ryan defended his PhD thesis and will soon join Baxter. Congratulations!

  • April 2011: Yamil Colon has been awarded an NSF Graduate Reserach Fellowship. Congratulations!

  • February 2011: We have updated our website! Please forgive us as we continue to update links.

  • October 2010: "De novo synthesis of a metal-organic framework material featuring ultrahigh surface area and gas storage capacities" published in Nature Chemistry. Read about it in a News and Views piece in Nature Chemistry and in Chemistry Views magazine. Full text here.

  • September 2010: Congratulations to Chris Wilmer for winning a $31,500 prize from InnoCentive for creating a synthetic-DNA management system. Read more about the challenge here. He is also featured in Inside Innovation's "I'm a Solver" blog.

  • July 2010: "Ultra-High Porosity in Metal-Organic Frameworks" published in Science. Read about it on the Northwestern web site, in Chemical & Engineering News, and on NanoWiki.

  • June 2010: Patent #7,744,842 issued on June 29 for "Gas adsorption and gas mixture separation using carborane-based MOF material."