Research group Tom Willhammar research group

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is about metal-organic frameworks, a molecular architecture that can be used in many different areas. Research on these frameworks in the field of sustainable chemistry has been ongoing at Stockholm University for many years.

Using advanced electron crystallography techniques, researchers at Stockholm University have succeeded in determining the structure of the historically significant red pigment carmine. It turns out that the substance, used today in products such as candy and paint, has a complex porous structure.

Researchers from Stockholm University have developed porous crystals made from pomegranate extract to capture and degrade pharmaceutical molecules found in local municipal wastewater. The article was first published 22 February 2024. Pharmaceutical compounds affect the human body to improve our health, but they can also have unintentional adverse effects for the wellbeing of wildlife. Hence wastewater treatment plants are facing the challenge of removing emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) such as active pharmaceutical ingredients, and therefore new materials and technologies are required. One strategy for removing pollutants from water is by using porous materials that behave like sponges. Metal-organic frameworks, so called MOFs, are a type of nanoporous material that are made of metal ions and organic molecules. Most MOFs are made using synthetic organic molecules. But now researchers from the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Stockholm University, have managed to develop new porous MOFs using a naturally occurring molecule found in plants – ellagic acid.  “Ellagic acid is one of the main building units of naturally occurring polyphenols known as tannins, which are common in fruits, berries, nuts, and tree bark. By combining ellagic acid, which was extracted from either pomegranate peel or tree bark, with zirconium ions, we developed a new highly porous MOF which we named SU-102,” says Erik Svensson Grape, who did the study during his time as a PhD student at the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Stockholm University.

Novel centrifugation-assisted method enables fabrication of sustainable photonic crystals from colloidal lignin particles.