Ensuring ubiquitous access to clean and water is paramount for protecting human health and promoting climate equity. Aside from drinking water protection and security, inadequate access to clean air poses one of the greatest threats to human health in the coming century. Air pollution represents the fourth greatest risk factor for human health worldwide, only trailing factors based on genetics or lifestyle choices, such as high blood pressure, diet, and smoking. Among the list of air pollutants outlined by the Environmental Protection Agency, toxic gases such as SO 2 , H2 S, NOx, NH3, and CO stand out as particularly hazardous with permissible exposure limits at part-per- million concentrations that can lead to acute toxicity effects, as well as chronic issues stemming from prolonged low dose exposure. While some of these gases originate from anthropogenic sources, such as the burning of fossil fuels and industrial processes, some of them can also be generated from natural sources, like wildfires and volcanic eruptions, making the detection and protection from toxic gas emissions a complex task. Access to clean water is also of global importance. Smart membranes—materials with tailored properties capable of responding to external stimuli—hold tremendous promise in environmental remediation and the design of personal protective equipment through combined capabilities in separating and detecting specific gases. This presentation will highlight the potential utility of conductive layered 2D metal–organic frameworks MOFs) on textiles to serve as multifunctional materials to achieve simultaneous chemical detection and filtration of toxic pollutants. An emphasis will be placed on the fundamental understanding and molecular design of modular structure–property relationships within this class of MOFs. The use of these materials paves the way towards scalable smart membrane design that merges ultrasensitive, selective, and low-power sensor technology with scalable methods for high-performance fabrication strategies.
Katherine A. Mirica was born and raised in Ukraine and emigrated with her family to the United
States as she was starting high school. She obtained her B.S. in Chemistry at Boston College, where
she developed a passion for Materials Chemistry, working in the laboratory of Lawrence T. Scott. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University under the guidance of George M. Whitesides and completed her postdoctoral training with Timothy M. Swager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Katherine began her independent scientific career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Dartmouth College in July 2015 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2021. Her research interests span the topics of self-assembly, design and synthesis of multifunctional framework materials, electroanalysis, energy, catalysis, and adhesion science. She is a recipient of the Army Research Office Young Investigator Award (2017), Sloan Research Fellowship (2018), PMSE Young Investigator Award (2018), 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2018), Cottrell Scholar Award (2019), NSF CAREER Award (2020), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2020), and NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (2020).
Ensuring ubiquitous access to clean and water is paramount for protecting human health and promoting climate equity. Aside from drinking water protection and security, inadequate access to clean air poses one of the greatest threats to human health in the coming century. Air pollution represents the fourth greatest risk factor for human health worldwide, only trailing factors based on genetics or lifestyle choices, such as high blood pressure, diet, and smoking. Among the list of air pollutants outlined by the Environmental Protection Agency, toxic gases such as SO 2 , H2 S, NOx, NH3, and CO stand out as particularly hazardous with permissible exposure limits at part-per- million concentrations that can lead to acute toxicity effects, as well as chronic issues stemming from prolonged low dose exposure. While some of these gases originate from anthropogenic sources, such as the burning of fossil fuels and industrial processes, some of them can also be generated from natural sources, like wildfires and volcanic eruptions, making the detection and protection from toxic gas emissions a complex task. Access to clean water is also of global importance. Smart membranes—materials with tailored properties capable of responding to external stimuli—hold tremendous promise in environmental remediation and the design of personal protective equipment through combined capabilities in separating and detecting specific gases. This presentation will highlight the potential utility of conductive layered 2D metal–organic frameworks MOFs) on textiles to serve as multifunctional materials to achieve simultaneous chemical detection and filtration of toxic pollutants. An emphasis will be placed on the fundamental understanding and molecular design of modular structure–property relationships within this class of MOFs. The use of these materials paves the way towards scalable smart membrane design that merges ultrasensitive, selective, and low-power sensor technology with scalable methods for high-performance fabrication strategies.
Katherine A. Mirica was born and raised in Ukraine and emigrated with her family to the United
States as she was starting high school. She obtained her B.S. in Chemistry at Boston College, where
she developed a passion for Materials Chemistry, working in the laboratory of Lawrence T. Scott. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University under the guidance of George M. Whitesides and completed her postdoctoral training with Timothy M. Swager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Katherine began her independent scientific career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Dartmouth College in July 2015 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2021. Her research interests span the topics of self-assembly, design and synthesis of multifunctional framework materials, electroanalysis, energy, catalysis, and adhesion science. She is a recipient of the Army Research Office Young Investigator Award (2017), Sloan Research Fellowship (2018), PMSE Young Investigator Award (2018), 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2018), Cottrell Scholar Award (2019), NSF CAREER Award (2020), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2020), and NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (2020).
