Confinement of metal complexes within porous hosts: development of functional materials for gas binding and catalysis.

The development of porous functional materials, using template copolymerization, that function in gas binding/release and catalysis is described. Using substitutionally inert metal complexes as templates, materials were prepared with immobilized sites that retained structural properties of the template; this allows for tunable functional properties. Chemical modification of the immobilized sites led to coordinatively unsaturated metal centers that reversibly bind either O2 or NO.

Development of porous materials for heterogeneous catalysis: kinetic resolution of epoxides.

Template copolymerization methods have been utilized to prepare porous materials with immobilized cobalt complexes that catalyze the hydrolytic kinetic resolution of epoxides.