1. How Do We Design and Perfect Atom- and Energy-efficient Synthesis of Revolutionary New Forms of Matter with Tailored Properties? Progress on Grand Challenge New Horizons for Grand Challenge Remaining ChallengeRefreshed Grand Challenge? This remains a Grand Challenge, and will become tractable for various different forms of matter over the next decade. Using the principles of coordination chemistry and solution assembly reactions, we have designed and synthesized new porous metal-organic frameworks capable of performing energy-efficient gas separations, including the capture of CO 2 from flue gases and natural gas purification. This is a very open challenge as there are many different forms of matter that could lead to revolutionary properties if synthetic control is developed. A new statement is not needed, and the grand challenge should not be retired. Submitted by: Jeffrey Long Affiliation: University of California, Berkeley

2. New Porous Material for the Efficient and Low-Cost Separation of Gases for Fuels and Plastics Work was performed at University of California, Berkeley and supported by the Center for Gas Separations Relevant to Clean Energy Technologies (an EFRC). Bloch, E. D.; Queen, W. L.; Krishna, R.; Zadrozny, J. M.; Brown, C. M.; Long, J. R. Science 2012, 335, 1606-1610 Left: Crystal structure of Fe 2 (dobdc)-ethylene showing Fe (orange), O(red), C(gray), and D(blue) atoms. The view along the [001] direction shows an ethylene molecule bound to the open coordination site at each iron(II) center. Right: H 4 (dobdc) ligand and the first coordination spheres for the iron centers in the solid-state structures obtained upon dosing Fe 2 (dobdc) with acetylene, ethylene, ethane, propylene, and propane. Scientific Achievement A new metal-organic framework was synthesized that features a high concentration of exposed high-spin iron(II) sites, leading to excellent performance for the purification of methane, ethane, ethylene, acetylene, propane, and propylene. These gases are important at an industrial level as both fuels and precursors for various plastics. Significance and Impact The discovery could help the oil and chemical industries save tremendous amounts of capital and energy and also lower the environmental impacts of separating these materials by replacing current existing large-scale energy- intensive gas separations processes. Research Details To meet the demand for short chain hydrocarbons, petrochemical companies continue to increase production that involves cracking longer chain hydrocarbons at high temperatures and separating the resulting mixtures using distillation at high pressures and cryogenic temperatures. The new solid iron(II)-based adsorbent featuring a large surface area and exposed high-spin metal cation sites can preferentially adsorb the unsaturated hydrocarbons ethylene, acetylene, and propylene with high selectivity over their saturated counterparts. The separation is accomplished at 45 °C rather than the energy-intensive cryogenic temperatures and high pressures currently used.