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.



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.

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