Editorial pubs.acs.org/cm
From Adsorption to Ordered Mesoporous Materials: Jaroniec and Kruk Members of the Chemistry of Materials’ 1k Club
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We both started our research at UMCS focusing on the theory of physical adsorption at gas−solid interfaces and expanded our research interests to chemistry of nanoporous materials, and in particular to the self-assembled materials within ordered mesopores. CM: Given the high citation record of your review, a significant amount of research has been impacted by your findings over the years. Where did you think the field was headed when you wrote the review? In your opinion, how has this particular research field evolved ever since? MJ: In 1992, the first paper on the surfactant-templated syntheses of ordered mesoporous silicas (OMS), including MCM-41 and MCM-48, was published in Nature by a group of researchers from Mobil Corporation.3 After reading this exciting paper I asked myself two questions: (i) How can adsorption research benefit from these new materials, and (ii) what can studies on adsorption offer to this emerging area of ordered, mesoporous materials? The paper in Nature initiated a new field of research in chemistry, that of ordered mesoporous materials (OMM). It was, and still is, a very exciting time for this area; these novel materials, because of their well-defined porosity, are excellent candidates for improving the existing and/or developing new methods for adsorption-based characterization of nanoporous solids. In addition, the newly discovered materials could be better designed and characterized using reliable adsorption-based methods. The first decade of research in the area of OMM resulted in the development of new mesostructures with tailored porosity (size, shape, and distribution of pores) and desired surface chemistry, ranging from silicas, organosilicas, metal oxides, polymers, and carbons to various organic−inorganic composite mesostructures; we put together a special issue on the subject in Chemistry of Materials, entitled “Templated Materials”,4 co-edited by editor Ferdi Schüth and me. During this time the collaboration of my group with Dr. A. Sayari (Canada) and Dr. R. Ryoo (Korea) resulted in many highly cited papers devoted to OMM.5 An enormous number of articles published during the first decade on OMM, and the ongoing research in my lab, stimulated Michal and me to prepare this Chemistry of Materials review article on gas adsorption characterization of OMM; today I think that it was a very good choice. CM: If you had to put your finger on it, what made your paper special? What are you most happy about when you reread your paper? MJ: Frankly speaking, I do not typically reread any of my papers, but I often check fragments of my papers in relation to the specific data and/or experimental details. I enjoy reading papers by other authors.
ur 1k Club editorials endeavor to understand what makes highly cited papers special; in each editorial, we interview the authors of papers in Chemistry of Materials that have been cited more than 1000 times. We caught up with one of these authors, Mietek Jaroniec, Professor of Chemistry at Kent State University (Figure 1). Together with Michal Kruk, currently
Figure 1. Members of the Chemistry of Materials’ 1k Club: Mietek Jaroniec (left photo; Kent State University) and Michal Kruk (right photo; CUNY, College of Staten Island).
Professor of Chemistry at the City University of New York (College of Staten Island), he published a review in Chemistry of Materials entitled “Gas Adsorption Characterization of Ordered Organic−Inorganic Nanocomposite Materials”,1 which has been cited more than 1310 times (Google Scholar) and 1127 times (Web of Science).2 In 2011, Jaroniec and Kruk were identified by Thomson Reuters, the corporation that runs Web of Science, as two of the top 100 most highly cited materials scientists and chemists, respectively, for research published between 2000 and 2010. In the following interview, we (Chemistry of Materials, CM), asked Mietek Jaroniec (MJ) to describe, among other things, their thoughts at the time of writing. CM: At what stage of your academic career were you when you submitted this manuscript to Chemistry of Materials? Who was the other author on the paper, and at what stage was he? Where is he now? MJ: I was a professor of chemistry at Kent State University with almost 30 years of experience in academia, and my former graduate student Michal Kruk, at that time, was a postdoctoral fellow in my research group. Both of us share a great passion for research and obtained academic education from M. CurieSklodowska University (UMCS) in Poland. I climbed the steps of my education and professorial career from B.Sc. and Ph.D., to full professor, at UMCS, while Michal completed his M.Sc. studies under the direction of my former co-worker and joined my research group at Kent State as a doctoral student in 1994. © 2015 American Chemical Society
Published: March 24, 2015 1903
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b00839 Chem. Mater. 2015, 27, 1903−1904
Chemistry of Materials
Editorial
CM: What’s your advice to young scientists trying to discover the next breakthrough in material science? MJ: I like the response given by editor Ferdi Schüth to this type of question: “...one probably should not recommend anything to a young scientist; they should follow their own ideas and use the unbeaten track.”6 I do have a small piece of practical advice: During all my years in academia, I check on a regular basis literature in my research area. Nowadays, having electronic access to the most important journals, each day I check the tables of contents of 21 journals and each week I perform a more complete literature search using available databases. The area of materials science research is rapidly growing, and a systematic monitoring of scientific literature provides great inspiration for developing new research ideas.
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Carlos Toro, Managing Editor Jillian M. Buriak, Editor-in-Chief
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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REFERENCES
(1) Kruk, M.; Jaroniec, M. Chem. Mater. 2001, 13, 3169. (2) Data from March 3, 2015. (3) Kresge, C. T.; Leonowicz, M. E.; Roth, W. J.; Vartuli, J. C.; Beck, J. S. Nature 1992, 359, 710. (4) Special issue: Chem. Mater. 2008, 3, 599−1190. (5) Kruk, M.; Jaroniec, M.; Ko, C. H.; Ryoo, R. Chem. Mater. 2000, 12, 1961. (6) Toro, C.; Buriak, J. M. Chem. Mater. 2014, 26, 5819.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b00839 Chem. Mater. 2015, 27, 1903−1904
