Specialists from the research group MAT4LL, which is directed by the professor and expert in Analytical Chemistry at the University of La Laguna Verónica Pino Estévez, and the professor at the Institute of Integrated Cell Material Sciences of the Kyoto University (Japan) Shuhei Furukawa, have initiated contacts to implement a new line of research focused on capturing polluting molecules present in water through the use of porous materials.
According to the researcher from the University of La Laguna, the aim is to adapt the porous materials created in the laboratory by Professor Furukawa's research group, a world leader in this field, to the designs required for monitoring pollutants in wastewater. This aspect was already verified by Dr. María Idaira Pacheco Fernández, also from the University of Tenerife, during her postdoctoral stay in Kyoto. Furukawa's research group.
The use of the materials created by Furukawa in water proved to be "much more effective than that of other conventional materials that were being used in this application," so Verónica Pino points out that the objective sought is "the application and integration of this variety of porous materials in the microdevices with which analytical chemistry research is carried out to search for contaminants in water and, even in a later step, in the search for biomarkers in urine.".
The Japanese scientist poses with the audience of his seminar.
The priority is to open a new line of research that combines the approaches of the University of La Laguna and the Furukawa group, so "the solution will probably come when the two lines of research are merged in a coherent way, and the comparison of the information opens new opportunities in the applications of analytical chemistry and the environment," says Professor Pino.
Until now, the design of synthetic porous materials has focused on capturing polluting gases from hydrocarbons that damage the air and contaminate the environment, but their use has been much less in research focused on water pollution. In the case of materials created in Japan—where the Institute for Integrated Cellular Material Science (iCeMS) has a long history of work in this field—they are constructed from a metal-organic framework.
“The real advantage of these synthetic materials,” explains the expert from Kyoto University, “is that we can decide their structure, whether two-dimensional or three-dimensional, as well as the pore and particle size, thus ensuring competitive advantages over activated carbon. For this reason, we define the size with a custom design to verify that the contaminant molecules we want to capture, in addition to fitting appropriately into these pores, ensure the capture of the contaminant in question among the molecules present in the analyzed sample.”.
“These materials could have great uses with regard to pollutants present in water, from ship fuels and fertilizer runoff, to cosmetic ingredients and endocrine disruptors that are deposited in the water of swimming pools and beaches, coming in many cases from sunscreens or cosmetic creams,” Verónica Pino and Shuhei Furukawa explain.
Seminar for experts
Furukawa's research group has already begun working on "a new class of porous materials that are more processable, have more applications and can be adapted to new designs," something that is only possible with "stable and economical materials, conceived and designed for this purpose," aspects that the expert explained in the seminar "Linking Material Sciences with Analytical Chemistry," which was attended by about thirty postdoc students from the University of La Laguna.
The talk given by this renowned Japanese scientist, who has more than 170 high-impact publications (including those published in the prestigious Science y Nature Communications), It took place a few days ago in the Aula Magna of the Chemistry Section of the Faculty of Sciences, within the framework of the program of grants for visiting professors' stays, aimed at the research staff that finances the Vice-Rectorate for Research and Transfer.
Furukawa's stay has served to inform and train experts on the current and future applications of these new synthetic porous materials, as well as to lay the foundations for a collaboration between the universities of La Laguna and Kyoto, which both scientists describe as much more than a simple research project, since this type of project "has an impact on society and contributes to the consolidation of a much greener world, with environmentally friendly solutions and, in this case, of relevant importance in the detection of contaminants in water, a field in which this type of material can open up many possibilities.".
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