Fitxa persona

I am an Associate Professor at the Instituto de Ciencia Molecular (ICMol, María de Maeztu excellence unit since 2016) at the Universitat de València (UV, excellence campus since 2010). In 2003, I gained my Degree in Chemistry from the UV (Extraordinary Award to the best graded), shortly afterwards I obtained a FPU Grant and joined Coronado’s group as a pre-doctoral student. Moreover, I gained expertise in the fields of nanotechnology, molecular magnetism, and the chemistry of supramolecular materials, obtaining deep skills in organic, coordination and surface chemistry. During my doctoral period, I was also able to obtain knowledge in other areas like molecular sensing or molecular photophysics. In 2008, I completed my PhD in Chemistry on the design of Bistable Metallic Complexes for Organic Electronics with the highest mark “Cum Laude” along with the Best Thesis in Chemistry award from the UV.

After obtaining my PhD degree I joined the Unité Mixte of Physicque CNRS/THALES (UMR137) under the supervision of Prof. Pierre Seneor and Dr. Richard Mattana as a post-doctoral researcher shortly after becoming a Marie Curie (MC) IEF Fellow. There, I worked for four years in the area of Molecular spintronics, more precisely on the integration of organic materials into spintronic devices mastering lithographic techniques and magnetotransport measurements.

At the beginning of 2013, I re-joined the ICMol as a Juan de la Cierva-MC CIG Fellow and focus my research on the development of different materials with interests for molecular electronics and spintronics that in 2018 associated to Dr. Carlos Martí group (FuniMat, https://funimat.es/). In 2018 I was granted with a Ramón y Cajal contract shifted my research attracted by the possibilities offered by Metallic Complexes and Frameworks in electrocatalytic applications.

I have combined my research with Chemistry teaching at the UV. Especially during 2016-2018 when I worked as Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry in Valencia. On top of that, I am co-founder of Porous Materials in Action SL (https://porousinaction.com/), the first Spanish company dedicated to the production and valorization of MOF type materials.

Student supervision.

I am currently supervising Sonia Martínez (started in 2023), María Tamayo (started 2024) and Noor Ul Uda (started 2025).

PhD Thesis:

1. María Romero, “Processing and Design of Group (IV) Reticular Platforms: Nanoparticles, Thin Films and Crystals”, 12/01/2024, Excellent Cum Laude.
2. Garin Escorcia, “Engineering New Tools for Automated Fabrication of Molecular Thin Films and Study of their Electrical Properties”, 16/07/2019, Excellent Cum Laude.
3. Michele Mattera, “Molecular Nanostructures on Ferromagnetic Metals for Spintronics”, 23/10/2017, Excellent Cum Laude
4. Julia Ponce, “Synthesis, Characterization and Electronic Transport Properties of Copper rotaxanes and Molecular Complexes", 13/06/2014, Excellent Cum Laude.

Master Thesis:

1. Amparo Rodríguez, “Control de la morfología y química superficial en cristales porosos”, 13/09/22, Very good 8.5/10
2. Miguel Gavara, “Bidimensional Materials: Chemical Vapour Synthesis and Characterization of Single- layer MoS₂”, 28/06/15, Excellent 10/10.
3. Eugenia Miguel, “Coordination Compound for Molecular Electronics: Synthesis, Characterization and Electronic Transport Properties”, 28/06/15, Excellent 9.5/10
4. Jorge Gómez, “Conductivity Measurements of Bistable Copper Rotaxanes Using Gold Nanoparticle Arrays”, 12/03/2014, Excellent 9.5/10.
5. Michele Mattera, “Self-Assembled Monolayers over Permaloy”, 28/03/14, Excellent 9.5/10.

Research Stays (last 10 years)

Metal-organic Materials Transport and Structural Dynamics (USA, Prof. Carl Brozek). 2022, 1 month. Variable temperature solid state UV-Vis and FT-IR measuremts.

Other outreach activities

Since 2017 I have regularly participated in Parc Científic de la Universitat de València Open door day and since 2022 in Noche de la Investigación.

Memberships of scientific societies

I peer-review American Chemical Society (ACS, since 2014), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC, since 2016), Wiley (since 2014), Institute of Physics (IOP, since 2016) and Elsevier (since 2017) journals. I am Member of the Real Sociedad Española de Química (RSEQ, since 2005) and American Chemical Society (ACS, since 2019)

Institutional responsibilities

I am an elected member of the ICMol Governing Board.

Publications (including books)  “^ac” Indicates co-corresponding author

To date, I have published 1 book chapter and 70 “peer-reviewed” papers (58 in the 1st quartile, 17 as co-corresponding author, h-index 30) with > 200 co-authors and > 2600 citations in primary Materials Science, Physics and Chemistry journals.

1. S. Martínez-Giménez, A. Orellana-Silla, … , V. Rubio-Giménez,^ac S. Tatay,^ac C. Martí-Gastaldo,^ac [9/10] “Solvent‐Free Thermal Defect Engineering in Molecular Frameworks With Volatile Linkers”. Adv. Mater. (2025), e11250. 10.1002/adma.202511250
2. M. Romero-Angel, R. Amrine, B. Ávila-Bolívar, … , J. Solla-Gullón,^ac S. Tatay,^ac C. Martí-Gastaldo,^ac [9/10] “Tailoring the Efficiency of Porphyrin Molecular Frameworks for the Electroactivation of molecular N₂”, J. Mater. Chem. A (2024) 10956 – 10964. 10.1039/d3ta07004b
3. M. Romero-Angel, V. Rubio-Giménez,^ac E. P. Gómez-Oliveira, … , S. Tatay,^ac C. Martí-Gastaldo,^ac [9/10] “Vapor-Assisted Conversion of Heterobimetallic Titanium–Organic Framework Thin Films”, Chem. Mater. 35 (2023) 10394 – 10402. 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c01389
4. S. Tatay,^ac S. Martínez-Giménez, A. Rubio-Gaspar, … , C. Martí-Gastaldo,^ac [1/10] “Synthetic Control of Correlated Disorder in UiO-66 Frameworks”, Nat. Commun. 14 (2023) 6962. 10.1038/s41467-023-41936-w
5. M. Romero-Angel, J. Castells-Gil, V. Rubio-Giménez, R. Ameloot, S. Tatay,^ac C. Martí-Gastaldo, “Surfactant-Assisted Synthesis of Titanium NanoMOFs for Thin Film Fabrication”, Chem. Commun. 57 (2021) 9040–9043. 10.1039/d1cc02828f
6. V. Rubio-Giménez, C. Bartual-Murgui, M. Galbiati, …, S. Tatay,^ac C. Martí-Gastaldo,^ac [14/15] “Effect of Nanostructuration on the Spin Crossover Transition in Crystalline Ultrathin Films”, Chem. Sci. 10 (2019) 4038–4047. 10.1039/c8sc04935a
7. V. Rubio-Giménez, G. Escorcia-Ariza, C. Bartual-Murgui, …, S. Tatay,^ac C. Martí-Gastaldo,^ac [8/9] “Ultrathin Films of 2D Hofmann-Type Coordination Polymers: Influence of Pillaring Linkers on Structural Flexibility and Vertical Charge Transport”, Chem. Mater. 31 (2019) 7277–7287. 10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b01634
8. V. Rubio-Giménez, N. Almora-Barrios, G. Escorcia-Ariza, M. Galbiati, M. Sessolo, S. Tatay,^ac C. Martí-Gastaldo,^ac “Origin of the Chemiresistive Response of Ultrathin Films of Conductive Metal‐Organic Frameworks”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 57 (2018) 15086–15090. 10.1002/anie.201808242
9. M. Mattera, V. Rubio-Giménez, S. Delprat, R. Mattana, P. Seneor, S. Tatay,^ac A. Forment-Aliaga,^ac E. Coronado, “Spontaneous Growth of 2D Coordination Polymers on Functionalized Ferromagnetic Surfaces”, Chem. Sci. 9 (2018) 8819–8828. 10.1039/c8sc03067g
10. V. Rubio-Giménez, M. Galbiati, J. Castells-Gil, …, S. Tatay,^ac C. Martí-Gastaldo,^ac [10/12] “Bottom-Up Fabrication of Semiconductive Metal–Organic Framework Ultrathin Films”, Adv. Mater. 55 (2018) 1704291. 10.1002/adma.201704291

Congress (last 10 years)

My co-workers and I have participated in different national and international conferences and workshops (>100). I have attended to 9 of them and presented our results as oral communications (6) or as invited speaker (3).

1. Synthesis of reo UiO-66, XXXIX Reunión Bienal de Química, (Zaragoza, (Spain), 25/06/2023 – 29/06/2023), oral communication.
2. Synthetic control of correlated disorder in UiO-66 frameworks, International Conference on Metal-Organic Frameworks and Open Framework Compounds (MOF2022), (Dresde, (Germany), 04/09/2022 – 07/09/2022), oral communication.
3. Thin film fabrication of Titanium Metal-Organic Frameworks, ACS Fall 2019 Meeting, (Chicago, (USA), 21/08/2022 – 25/08/2022), oral communication.
4. Ultrathin Films of Layered Coordination Polymers: Charge Transport and Spin Crossover at the Nanoscale, ACS Fall 2019 Meeting, (San Diego, (USA), 25/08/2019 – 29/08/2019), oral communication.
5. Charge Transport in Metal-Organic Frameworks Ultrathin Films, International Conference in Coordination Chemistry (ICCC2018), (Sendai, (Japan), 30/07/2018 – 04/08/2018), invited speaker.
6. Growth of Self-Assembled Monolayers Directly on Ferromagnetic Metal Surfaces, International Conference on Solid Films and Surfaces (ICSFS18), (Chemnitz (Germany), 28/08/16 – 02/09/162016), invited speaker.

Projects or research lines in which you have participated. (last 10 years)

To date, I have participated in 19 national (funded by the Spanish MINECO or the Valencia Government) and 8 international (European Union & French). I have been Principal Investigator of 7 synchrotron proposals.

Princial investigator

1. “Ultrastable Pyrazolate Porphyrin Metal-organic Frameworks for Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction: Porous Crystals and Thin Films” (UPPER, PID2023-150383OB-I00): 150 k€, Funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. Principal Investigator: Sergio Tatay and Víctor Rubio. 01/00/2024 – 30/09/2026.
2. “Photospinner un Fotorreactor de Alto Rendimiento para Valorización Acelerada de CO₂” (PhotoSpinner, INNVA1/2023/95): 222 k€, Funded by Generalitat Valenciana. Principal Investigator: Sergio Tatay. 01/01/2023 – 31/12/2025.
3. “Electrically Conductive Metal-organic Frameworks as Tailorable Porous Electrodes for CO₂ Reduction” (MOFCORE, RTI2018-098568-A-I00): 97 k€, Funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. Principal Investigator: Sergio Tatay. 26/08/2019 – 25/08/2022.
4. “Self-Assembled Monolayers over Ferromagnetic Electrodes for Organic Spintronics” (MC-CIG-321739): 75 k€. Funded by European Union Research Executive Agency (REA). Principal Investigator: Sergio Tatay. 01/12/2012 – 30/11/2015.
5. “Nanocontacted Thin Molecular Films for Spintronics” (SAMESFERE, MC-IEF-252757): 166 k€. Funded by European Union Research Executive Agency (REA). Principal Investigator: Sergio Tatay. 01/03/2010 – 29/02/2012

Member of the research team in other long-term projects

1. “Bringing Nanospace to Life by Adapting Pore Environments to Chemical Complexity” (ERC-2021-COG-101043428-LIVINGPORE), 2.0 M€. Funded by the European Comission. PrincipaI Investigator: C. Martí. 2023 – 2027.
2. “Catalizadores Reticulares de Titanio Fotoactivos para Energía” (TIFO MFA/2022/026), 270 k€. Funded by Generalitat Valenciana. Principal Investigator: Carlos Martí. 2022– 2024.
3. “Metal-Organic Frameworks as Crystalline Platforms for Multipurpose Catalysis” (MOF4CAT PROMETEU/2021/054), 545 k€. Funded by Generalitat Valenciana. Principal Investigator: Carlos Martí. 2021– 2024.
4. “Tejidos Técnicos Innovadores para Equipos de Protección Individual con Actividad Mejorada contra Organofosfoésteres” (INNOTEX INNVA1/2021/23), 250 k€. Funded by Generalitat Valenciana. Principal Investigator: Carlos Martí. 2021– 2024.
5. “Chemical Engineering of Functional Stable Metal-Organic Frameworks”: Porous Crystals and Thin Film Devices (ERC Stg Chem-fs-MOF 714122), 1.6 M€. Funded by the European Commission. Principal investigator: Carlos Martí. 2016 – 2022.

Technology/knowledge transfer activities and exploitation of results.

Patents

1. G. Escorcia, N. M. Padial, C. Martí-Gastaldo, S. Tatay, “Dispositivo para realizar reacciones químicas” WO/2024/209120 – PCT/ES2024/070188.
2. J. Castells-Gil, N. M. Padial, N. Almora-Barrios, R. Gil-San Millán, J. A. R. Navarro, S. Tatay C. Martí-Gastaldo “Titanium-iron MOF solid, procedure of synthesis and use for detoxification purposes” WO2021148702, ES2844934. Exploited by Porous Materials in Action S.L.

Innovation leadership

1. “Photospinner un Fotorreactor de Alto Rendimiento para Valorización Acelerada de CO₂” (PHOTOSPINNER INNVA1/2023/95), 222 k€. Programa de Valorización y Transferencia de Resultados de Investigación a las Empresas funded by Agencia Valenciana de la Innovación. Principal Investigator: Sergio Tatay. 01/01/2023 – 31/12/2025. See webpage for more info.
2. 2021    Porous Materials in Action S. L. (participated by Universidad de Valencia) to develop and commercialize MOF products, processes, and services to apply them in sectors such as the storage of useful gases such as green fuels, catalysis, capture of pollutants, supply and purification of water or environmental purification, among others. See webpage for more info.