Abstract

Metal-organic Frameworks (MOFs) and Covalent-organic Frameworks (COFs) are advanced porous materials deriving from the self-assembly of (organic/inorganic and organic/organic) building units. In the past twenty years, the broad library of building units and synthetic conditions has allowed the preparation and consequent investigation of a huge number of MOFs and COFs showing intriguing functional properties – adsorption, separation, heterogeneous catalysis, sensing, drug delivery, to list a few – that outperform, in many aspects, those of classical porous materials. In a number of occasions, the functional properties and potential applications of these non-conventional porous materials has prompted their appearance on the market or testing in technologically relevant devices. Despite this, there still exists a large playground for isolating new substances and/or improving the properties of existing ones. As this vast and interdisciplinary research field is advancing at a very fast pace, two years after the success of the first International School on Porous Materials we feel that times are mature to propose a second edition of the event, MOFschool2021, despite the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. To the aim, MOFschool2021 lecturers panel can count on a number of internationally recognized scientists, including Silvia Bordiga, Elisa Borfecchia, Jose Casaban, Valentina Colombo, Mircea Dincă, Roland Fischer, Felipe Gándara, Jorge Gascón, Stuart James, Stefan Kaskel, Piero Macchi, Carlos Martí-Gastaldo, Jorge A.R. Navarro, Davide M. Proserpio, and Omar M. Yaghi. MOFSchool2021, jointly organized by the Universities of Insubria, Milano La Statale and Granada, has made a great effort to encourage participation of young, enthusiastic scientists from all over the world, for which we are gratefully indebted to our generous funders.