Executive Summary : | The main focus of the proposed project is to explore the clean energy related applications of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)¸ metal-organic gels (MOGs) and their derived materials with detail analyses of their structure-property relationship. MOFs are the crystalline materials containing metal-ligand coordination network while MOGs are soft materials formed by encapsulating solvent within the void space created by the cross-linked polymeric metal-ligand coordination network. They provide ample opportunities to modulate the structure¸ composition¸ morphology to obtain efficient functional materials. The crystalline MOFs provides the functional groups on the backbone¸ ordered array of single/multi metal ion centre/cluster¸ and the porosity that leads to the higher activity of these materials as catalysts. On the other hand, the MOGs containing the conductive polymeric network and the redox active metal ions or the inorganic cluster components such as polyoxometalates capable of overcoming the inherent low conductivity of the porous materials giving rise to efficient electrocatalyst for water splitting. Moreover, the MOF/MOG derived nanomaterials like the hetero atom or metal nanoparticle doped porous carbons with higher electrochemical stability and conductivity is expected to exhibit enhanced performance as an electrocatalyst. The goal is to synthesise MOFs and MOGs with organic ligands containing predesigned functional groups and electrochemically active metal ions that can facilitate the rapid electron transfer as well as mass transport, resulting an efficient electrocatalyst for water splitting reaction. The proposal also aims at the studies on the structural significance of nanomaterials with various morphologies derived from the MOFs/MOGs and examine their impact on performance of the materials in clean energy applications. Salient features of the proposal includes: a) Design and synthesis of hetero atom containing carboxylate based ligands with multiple coordination sites; b) Synthesis of crystalline and gelatinous coordination polymeric materials and exploration of their applications in electrocatalytic water splitting; c) Obtaining the MOGs/MOFs derived nanomaterials of various composition and morphologies with higher conductivity and examine their efficiency to catalyse the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)¸ oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and overall water splitting reaction; d) Development of strategies to control the structure and morphology of the MOF/MOGs and derived nanomaterials to facilitate the mass transport to design higher efficient electrocatalysts. |