From Electrically Conductive MOFs to Sustainable Batteries

Abstract: The emergence of electrically conductive metal-organic frameworks (c-MOFs) has been one of the most paradoxical developments in the field in the last few years. Indeed, how can one transport charges through a material that is mostly “empty” space? In this sense, MOFs made from layers of organic ligands connected by (typically) square-planar metal ions have shown particularly good electrical conductivity. However, a precise mechanism for charge transport is still the subject of debate, with various experimental and computational reports describing these materials as metals, semiconductors, or semimetals. This lecture will describe the latest efforts from our group to understand the intrinsic properties of 2D c-MOFs, especially as related to single-crystal electrical measurement studies and will discuss in particular the unexpectedly large influence of out-of-plane transport. The seminar will also discuss how these fundamental studies have led directly to the discovery of a sustainable, organic cathode material that is competitive with incumbent oxides in Li-ion and Na-ion rechargeable batteries.   

Short Bio Sketch: Mircea Dincă is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University. He grew up in Romania and moved to the United States to pursue his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at Princeton University. Graduate studies in Inorganic Chemistry at UC Berkeley were followed by a postdoctoral appointment at MIT. He started his independent career in 2010 at MIT and moved his group to Princeton in 2025. His research focuses on the synthesis of new multifunctional materials for applications in electrical and electronic devices, heterogeneous catalysis, and various uses in clean and renewable energy. In recognition of his group's research, Dincă has been awarded the Alan T. Waterman Award from the NSF in 2016, the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry in 2018, and the Blavatnik National Award in Chemistry in 2021, among several others. He has been named to the Thomson-Reuters/Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Chemists List yearly since 2014.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RWC2ERYAAAAJ&hl=en

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1262-1264

Hist: Dr. Christopher Wilmer