Centre for Nanoporous Materials
Schools of Chemistry and CEAS 
About CNM

The CNM, established in 1995, originally as the UMIST Centre for Microporous Materials UCMM (then Centre for Microporous Materials, CMM, and now Centre for Nanoporous Materials, CNM, within The University of Manchester) is a joint initiative between the Schools of Chemistry and CEAS (Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science) with industry to create a Centre of Excellence in the field of nanoporous materials. The Centre was established in conjunction with 4 industrial sponsors: BNFL; BOC; Englehard; ICI. Custom-built laboratories were constructed in 2001 through joint funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, UMIST and the Wolfson Foundation. The Centre then moved in 2006 to new laboratories in the Brunswick Street Building of the School of Chemistry in The University of Manchester. This Centre of Excellence provides a focus for projects on nanoporous materials in collaboration with industry and many international academic institutions.

Mordenite viewed down [001]     Surfactant templated mesoporous silica     Crystals of zeolite ZSM-5

Electron micrograph of titanosilicate ETS-10     The zeolitic mineral Scolecite     Diatomaceous earth

Porous materials are omnipresent in nature: microporous materials, such as zeolite minerals, with pores of angstrom, molecular dimensions; mesoprous materials, such as cell membranes, with nanometre-sized pores; macroporous materials, such as diatom skeletons, with micron-sized pores. Synthetic analogues of such materials are prepared and studied here and find many industrial uses in for instance catalysis, water treatment, environmental clean-up, molecular separation and opto-electronics.


CNM Picture Galleries

Click on an image to see the pictures.

XXV Annual BZA Conference Edinburgh 2002     UCMM 2002 Christmas Meal     XXVI Annual BZA Conference Nottingham 2003     UCMM 2003 Summer Trip to Blackpool     XIV International Zeolite Conference Cape Town 2004     XXVII Annual BZA Conference St Andrews 2004    

Draw for the UCMM Euro 2004 Sweepstake     CMM 2004 Christmas Meal     XXVIII Annual BZA Conference Bath 2005     XXIX Annual BZA Conference Ambleside 2006     CNM 2006 Christmas Meal     XXX Annual BZA Conference York 2007    

Group outing to Lake District, July 2007     15th IZC Beijing, Aug 2007     XXXI Annual BZA Conference, Keele University Apr 2008     FEZA 2008, Paris     XXXII Annual BZA Conference York 2009     A Material World: is seeing believing?    

Workshop on Porous Materials, Sm?gen, Sweden 2010     IZC Sorrento, Italy 2010     Xmas Lunch, 2011     Xmas Lunch, 2014     Crystallisation Down Under, 2016