Prof. Georgios Karanikolos Prof. Karanikolos received his diploma from the department of Chemical Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and his PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After that he joined the department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science at the University of Minnesota as a post-doctoral research associate, and then returned to Greece as a Marie Curie researcher at the Demokritos National Research Center. His research focuses on development of innovative hierarchical techniques for growth of multifunctional materials at the nanoscale with emphasis on porous hybrid structures including zeolites, metalorganic frameworks (MOFs), and carbon nanotubes for separation and catalysis. His work is being published in prestigious scientific journals including Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Carbon, and he has delivered ~20 invited lectures and seminars mainly in Europe and the USA.
Development of hierarchically ordered porous materials with nanostructural configuration and precisely controlled pore network and functionality is needed to achieve high flux-high selectivity performance at low energy cost in today’s demanding separation processes. Zeolites, crystalline materials with precisely defined pores in the size range of molecules and remarkable thermal and chemical stability, are promising materials with which to achieve highly selective separations based on molecular recognition by the pores. Metalorganic frameworks (MOFs) on the other hand offer unique tunability of pore functionalities resulting in enhanced uptake capacity of selected gases, including carbon dioxide. The presentation will focus on hierarchical approaches to achieve microstructurally-optimized structures and membranes of these two types of materials, with particular emphasis on pore orientation, thickness control, defect elimination, and functionality enhancement. Progress on one-dimensional microporous systems having carbon nanotubes as pores will also be discussed.