3rd Kyoto Lecture: Welcome to Small Spaces, by Susumu Kitagawa
By Susumu Kitagawa
Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director-General at the Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study (KUIAS); Director of the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), at Kyoto University, Japan.
With an introduction by Jean-Marie Lehn, USIAS Chair of Chemistry of Complex Systems.
Welcome to Small Spaces:
Gas Science and Technology for Sustainable Future
With the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, humans began to create technologies that consumed huge amounts of energy. In the 21th century, where the depletion of petroleum has become a concern, gas (e.g., natural gas and biogas and even air) should play an important role. Hence, the trend has been shifting from solid to liquid to gas. The future should realize the “age of gas”, and in this context, porous materials with nanosized spaces will significantly contribute.
Based on the revolutionary concept of bottom-up synthesis, we are now able to successfully develop novel porous materials, involving everything from serendipitous findings to tailor-made synthesis. These are called “porous coordination polymers” (PCPs) or “metal-organic frameworks” (MOFs). MOFs have great potential in applications in a wide variety of fields, such as the global environment, natural resources, development of outer space, life sciences, and energy, demonstrating their extremely high value for science, industry and society.
The lecture will be followed by a reception.
