ProfessorDeanna D'Alessandro

Project Opportunities

Title: Radical MOFs and POPs: from microporous conductors to CO(2) capture materials

Summary of opportunity:

This project involves the design, synthesis and characterisation of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and porous organic polymers (POPs) based on redox-active ligands and metal clusters which exhibit stable radical states that can be reversibly ‘switched’ using chemical, electrical or light stimuli. 
The generation of electronically conducting microporous materials is one of the most highly sought after (yet poorly developed) goals in the field.

Opportunity synopsis:

This project will involve the design and synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and porous organic polymers (POPs) with stable radical states that can be generated using chemical, electrical or light stimuli. The opportunities for advances at a fundamental and applied level are immense, with potential applications ranging from new electrocatalysts and battery materials, to lightweight sensors, and new materials for energy-efficient gas separations.

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Project Opportunities

Title: Responsive Metal-Organic Framework Glass Composite Materials

Summary of opportunity:

Research Area:

Metal-Organic Frameworks, Composite Materials, Glasses, Spectroscopy, and Electrochemistry. 

Opportunity synopsis:

This PhD Scholarship aims to support a student undertaking a PhD within the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Faculty of Engineering.

The focus of research is the design, synthesis and characterisation of new MOF glass materials. The successful recipient will use spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques to characterise MOF glasses. They will also determine the suitability of MOF glasses in composite materials for gas storage and energy applications.

Offering:

This scholarship is offered to both international and domestic PhD applicants for 3.5 year (fulltime) at the RTP stipend rate of $40,109 p.a.

Successful candidates must:

• Have an honours degree (first class) or masters in Inorganic Chemistry or Chemical Engineering.
• Good proficiency in programming languages and computational skill.
• Be willing to undertake research in spectroscopy and electrochemistry, and demonstrate a willingness to undertake occasional experiments at the institutes of collaborators.
• Applicants with experience in spectroscopy or electrochemistry are highly favoured.

How to Apply:

To apply, please email deanna.dalessandro@sydney.edu.au, with the subject line PhD Application: and your name. Include the following:

• CV
• Transcripts (can be unofficial)
• A personal statement which demonstrates how they reach the eligibility criteria.

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Project Opportunities

Title: Design and Synthesis of Chiral MOFs

Summary of opportunity:

This project aims to establish chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as a powerful new optical materials platform to exploit light-matter interactions for highly responsive and energy-efficient all-optical switches. Thin film optical devices based on chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) can be integrated with existing fibre-optic infrastructure, offering the ability to manipulate photons with photons at ultrafast speeds.

Research Area

• Metal-Organic Frameworks
• Chirality
• Thin film optical devices

Opportunity synopsis:

The unprecedented advances in medicine, communications, energy, transportation, computers, and national security have been enabled by a revolution in telecommunications. Modern transmission networks use light signals sent through fibre optics to transfer enormous quantities of information rapidly over long distances, and electronic circuits to process and store the transmitted information.

The ability to rationally design and synthesise Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) materials offers a key advantage: chiral MOFs are non-centrosymmetric and offer magnetic properties from metal centres and radical ligands, providing an innovative and powerful strategy to enhance the nonlinear interactions between photons that can be further manipulated using magnetic fields. These interactions form the basis of all-optical devices for computing and information processing.

In addition, structural chirality in MOFs offers enormous scope to harness selective interactions with circularly polarised light for optical switching and sensing applications.

In this project, MOFs will be synthesised using well-established methods including diffusion, solvothermal and post-synthetic modification (PSM) methods. Single crystal structures will be determined locally. A wide array of additional characterisation techniques will be employed including TGA/DSC, FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopies to examine the vibrational dependence of charge transfer transitions, and custom solid state Vis-NIR, EPR and FT-Raman spectroelectrochemistries. Surface area and porosity measurements will be undertaken using gas adsorption analysers, which will also be used to probe guest inclusion by gas sorption as a function of temperature.

Offering:

This scholarship is offered to both international and domestic Engineering PhD applicants for 3.5 year (fulltime) at the RTP stipend rate of $41,753 p.a (2025 RTP rate, indexed annually). A scholarship can only be offered once the applicant has an unconditional offer of admission.

The successful candidate must:

• Have a Honours degree (First Class or First Class Honours Equivalent) or a Master's degree with a substantial research component in Inorganic or Materials Chemistry, or Chemical Engineering.
• Be willing to undertake materials synthesis and research in spectroscopy

How to Apply:

To apply, please email deanna.dalessandro@sydney.edu.au and cc marcello.solomon@sydney.edu.au, with the subject line PhD Application: and your name. Include the following:

• CV
• Transcripts (can be unofficial)
• personal statement demonstrating interest in the research project