The international research team, including scientists from Birmingham University and TU Dortmund University, report that MOF glasses can be tuned and engineered in the same way as traditional glasses. Their findings are detailed in Nature Chemistry.
The team found that adding small chemical compounds containing sodium or lithium to the glass changes its behaviour and structure; the chemicals lower the temperature at which the glass softens and change how easily it flows when heated, which makes manufacturing easier.
The discovery, claimed to provide a new design framework for making customised MOF glasses for advanced technological applications, could unlock new possibilities for high performance materials used in gas separation, chemical storage, and advanced coatings.
In a statement, Birmingham University’s Dr Dominik Kubicki said: “Glass has been part of human civilisation for millennia. From ancient Mesopotamia to modern fibre-optic cables, small amounts of chemical modifiers make it easier to process glass and change its functional properties.
“However, MOF glasses soften only at high temperatures – above 300°C – close to their degradation temperature, making manufacturing challenging and limiting broader use. This discovery unlocks new possibilities for future high-performance materials.”
A well-known known example of MOF glass is ZIF-62, a porous material that can be melted and cooled into a glass while retaining part of its internal porosity; which makes it attractive for applications in gas separation, membranes and catalysis.
Professor Sebastian Henke, from TU Dortmund University, said: “Our approach is inspired by how conventional silicate glasses have been modified: disrupting the network structure to tune melting behaviour and mechanical properties.
“Our study shows the same principle can be transferred to hybrid metal-organic glasses. This advance brings MOF glasses a step closer to real-world manufacturing and applications in gas separation, storage, catalysis and beyond.”
Understanding how the sodium additives alter the internal structure of the glass required advanced characterisation techniques. Birmingham University researchers – led by Drs Dominik Kubicki and Benjamin Gallant – contributed atomic-level analysis of the modified glass structure, as well as performing high-temperature solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy experiments at the UK High-Field Solid-State NMR Facility.
This work allowed the team to understand precisely how sodium ions integrate into the glass network and how they disrupt its connectivity.
Birmingham researchers, led by Professor Andrew Morris and Dr Mario Ongkiko, then used AI-driven computational modelling to interpret complex NMR data. Using machine-learning-assisted simulations revealed how sodium interacted with the glass structure, thereby validating experimental observations.
The experimental and computational findings show that sodium does more than occupy vacant sites; it replaces some zinc atoms, subtly relaxing the structure.
With this mechanism now understood, the study calls for further research to improve material stability, enhance predictive modelling, and assess performance in practical applications.