New Material for Energy Storage and Optoelectronic applications

Researchers at TU Berlin have developed a new material from the class of microporous, metal-organic framework (MOF) compounds. On the one hand, such compounds can store small molecules and gases such as hydrogen, CO2 or even toxins. On the other hand, the large surface area resulting from the high volume of pores means they are also suitable as a material for electrodes such as in supercapacitors, which can be charged much faster than conventional batteries. The problem to date is that the majority of MOFs are very poor conductors of electricity. The new material created by the researchers, called GTUB3, is both a good conductor as well as chemically and thermally extremely stable. What makes it unique is that it is also photoluminescent, meaning that it glows when irradiated with light. As a result, it could also be used in optoelectronic applications and solar…

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