Chemically Tailored Zirconium Metal-Organic Frameworks for the Removal of Persistent Water Contaminants

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are porous hybrid materials deriving from the combination of organic linkers and inorganic building blocks. Creation and engineering of defects in MOFs offers an additional dimension of opportunities for tailor-made materials, since local defects have direct implications in the resulting properties. In this proposal, we aim to apply incisive Pair Distribution Function (PDF) analyses to gain insight on the local structure of functionalized Zr(IV)-MOFs with capacity to remove persistent water pollutants.