Like the T-1000 in Terminator, liquid metals can flow, reshape themselves, and form new structures while remaining highly reactive at their surfaces. The T-1000’s ability to transform its shape in response to its surroundings provides a useful way to understand these materials: rather than being fixed and rigid, liquid metals can continuously reorganise, spread, deform, and expose fresh reactive surfaces.
In science, this unusual combination of fluidity, adaptability, and surface reactivity allows liquid metals such as gallium and its alloys to produce atomically thin oxide sheets. These 2D sheets can then act as active platforms for building new materials.
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous materials with large surface areas and selective chemical environments. They are valuable in many applications, including sensing, capturing pollutants and environmental remediation. While MOFs have been grown on liquid-metal particles, much less is known about attaching them to isolated liquid-metal-derived 2D oxide sheets.
This project will merge the science behind two material categories to create 2D metal oxide/MOF heterostructures. Selected MOFs will be grown or anchored onto oxide sheets using surface treatments that encourage controlled growth and stable functionalisation. The project will investigate how the interface affects the structure, stability, and function of the combined material. A focused proof-of-concept study will evaluate their capacity to detect or capture an environmentally relevant gas or water pollutant.
School
Biomedical Engineering
Research Area
Materials science and engineering | Chemical engineering | Chemistry | Liquid metals | MOFs | Inorganic chemistry | Biomedical engineering
Suitable for recognition of Work Integrated Learning (industrial training)?
No
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference material/links
The project will be based in the School of Biomedical Engineering at UNSW, in close collaboration with the School of Chemical Engineering. The candidate will be jointly supervised by Dr Dorna Esrafilzadeh and Prof Kang Liang, providing complementary expertise across liquid metals, 2D materials, MOFs and characterisation and functional applications. The candidate will have access to the laboratory infrastructure and advanced materials-characterisation capabilities available across both research teams, providing an interdisciplinary environment in which to undertake the proposed research.
- Establish viable strategies for MOF nucleation and stable attachment on liquid-metal-derived 2D sheets.
- Determine relationships between interfacial chemistry, morphology, stability, and functional properties.
- Demonstrate a proof of concept in conversion or sensing models.
