Seth Cohen, Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of San Diego

Please join us:

GW Chemistry Department presents our guest speaker, Dr. Seth Cohen, Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of San Diego.

The Integration of Polymers and MOFs has the Potential to Generate Hybrid Materials with the Best Qualities of Both.  Polymer-MOF hybrids have been prepared and investigated for a wide range of applications from mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) for separations and catalysis, to more complex structural composites, such as 3D-printed materials.  Our group has taken an increasing interest in the science at the polymer-MOF interface and the results of our investigations will be presented.  Our studies include ‘top-down’ approaches, such as the preparation of MMMs with exceptionally high MOF content that show potential utility in both separations and catalysis.  In collaborative studies with theorists and spectroscopists, we are attempting to better characterize polymer-MOF interactions in MMMs and the interface between these materials.  Our ultimate objective is to improve our understanding of polymer-MOF interactions, to better control these interfaces, and ultimately improve the performance of MMMs in various applications.  Other investigations from our laboratory utilize ‘bottom-up’ approaches for making hybrid materials from polymer ligands to generate a new class of porous solids termed ‘polyMOFs’.  polyMOFs demonstrate unique properties and morphologies when compared to their conventional MOF counterparts, and efforts to develop these materials as a class of processable MOFs will be presented.

Bio

After high school, I moved to the San Francisco bay area to attend Stanford University (Go Cardinal!) where I obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. Upon completion of my undergraduate education I moved across the bay to attend graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley where I studied under the guidance of Prof. Kenneth N. Raymond. After completing my Ph.D. at U.C. Berkeley, I moved to Boston, to perform postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Stephen J. Lippard at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After about two and a half years in Boston I moved to my present position at the University of California, San Diego (Go Tritons!). On July 1, 2011, I was promoted to the position of Professor, and served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at U.C. San Diego from July 2012 to June 2015.