Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) – porous materials with almost unlimited chemical and structural diversity - have incited an interesting alternative to the drawbacks that nanotechnology is currently facing. The defect engineering of MOFs has been used as a tool to modify their porosity, chemical reactivity and electronic conductivity among other properties, but research is still limited in the vast majority towards Zr-MOFs. Notably, defect chemistry of Ti-MOFs remains unexplored despite that the pristine materials photoactivity, chemical and structural stability and Titanium being an abundant biocompatible metal. This project, entitled `Defective Titanium Metal-Organic-Frameworks(DefTiMOFs)’ aims to develop novel high-throughput (HT)synthetic methodologies for the control of not only defect chemistry of Ti-MOFs,but also of their particle size and inner surface (porefunctionalisation) towards the controllable modification of their properties. HT synthesis will be convened with a set of novel characterisation techniques (mainly synchrotron-based) for atomic and molecular level of characterisation of defects, aiming to correlate synthetic conditions with defect formation (defect type, densityand spatial distribution within the framework)in order to provide thebase of knowledge to anticipate their properties based on the synthetic conditions. This will then allow for defect engineering of MOFs using a wide range of materials. In view of the above and inspired by the high demand for clean and renewable energy sources including efficient and affordablewater delivery systems in places with limited access to drinkablewater, the DefTiMOFs project aims to correlate defect chemistry of Ti-MOFs with their performance towards environmentally friendly applications. This will lead to the ultimate design of materials with outstanding performance in heterogeneous catalysis, photocatalysis (hydrogen production) and water harvesting from air.

The purpose of Hy-MAC is to assess both technical and economic viability of using magnetic nanocomposites based on the combination of carbon nanoforms (graphene) with magnetic nanoparticle as hybrid supercapacitors. These hybrid magnetic materials have shown to exhibit unique supercapacitive properties, which can be significantly enhanced by application of an external magnetic field. Thus, the specific capacitance increases up to a 500% by applying an external magnetic field. Taking advantage of these results, in this proposal we plan to fabricate and test prototype supercapacitive devices exhibiting better performances than those reported for commercial supercapacitors.

Future smart multi-functional logic devices might combine switchable molecules and two-dimensional layered materials (2D-LMs). Spin crossover (SCO) compounds are a paradigmatic example of molecular switches including cooperative spin-transitions. One of their hallmarks is the huge concomitant strain arising upon SCO up to 13 % responding to numerous external stimuli even above room temperature. Besides, hundreds of 2D-LMs were discovered after the isolation of thin graphene layer(s) from graphite. Such a plethora of diverse atomic layers with distinct properties opened the door to design novel van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) with artificially engineered functionalities. Introducing external interactions or strain can give the ability to tune optical band gaps and electrical properties of 2DLMs-vdWHs. Still in its infancy, this strategy promises new properties and exciting physics seeking thereafter unprecedented device performance and applications. This interdisciplinary project intends at pioneering design, preparation and investigations of the electrical transport and magnetotransport properties of SCO/2D-LMs-vdWHs. Signs of the coexistence, or even synergy, of several physical properties of interest will be painstakingly researched. This quest encompasses manifestations of magnetism, conductivity, and superconductivity influenced by thermal- and light-induced SCO cooperative spin-transitions, pursuing innovative 2D nanoelectronics, energy applications and flexible sensors.

The aim of this innovative and high-impact interdisciplinary proposal is to investigate the potential properties and applications of plasmonic metallic nanostructures that enable the confinement of light to scales beyond the diffraction limit, known as quantum plasmonics. Latest studies have revealed the quantization of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). It could be the stepping stone for the generation of miniaturized photonic components for the quantum control of light. This implies that the SPPs would represent a totally new sort of information carrier for nanoscale circuitry, enabling a revolutionary bridge between current diffraction-limited microphotonics and bandwith-limited nanoelectronics, paving the way for integrated quantum information processing. Thus, in a first stage we will develop integrated nanoscale quantum plasmonics building blocks on-a-chip, such as efficient single-photon sources or transistors, which is the component required for the fabrication of true nanoscale quantum computing logic gates. We also plan to exploit the low-Ohmic-losses and prospects for large scale production of ultra-compact cutting-edge graphene plasmonic circuits. This research will be lastly applied to single molecule sensing. Experiments will be performed using innovative techniques for nanofabrication of photonic nanostructures and for characterization. The expected results will allow taking advantage of quantum interference effects, setting up the optical response of the extremely low losses Long Range (LR) SPPs modes within a quantum framework and showing that graphene layers produce strong light-matter interaction and extreme optical field confinement. The results will be compared with ab initio simulations, giving a precise and consistent experimental and theoretical panorama of quantum plasmonics.