Prof. Chen-Yen TsaiTaiwan
Department of Chemistry, National Chung Hsing University
| 2026 to present | | Assistant Professor, National Chung Hsing University |
| 2024 - 2025 | | Assistant Professor, National Chung Cheng University |
| 2022 - 2024 | | Associate Professor, Chinese Culture University |
| 2018 - 2022 | | Assistant Professor, Chinese Culture University, |
| 2018 - | | Postdoc Fellow, Chung Yuan Christian University |
| 2017 - | | Postdoc Fellow, National Chung Hsing University |
| 2016 - | | Visiting Researcher, University of South Florida |
Inorganic chemistry; Polymer chemistry
Chen-Yen Tsai received his B.S. in Chemistry from Chung Yuan Christian University and his Ph.D. from National Chung Hsing University under the supervision of Prof. Chu-Chieh Lin. He completed postdoctoral research with Prof. Bao-Tsan Ko and Prof. Chia-Her Lin. In 2018, he joined Chinese Culture University as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. In 2026, he joined the Department of Chemistry at National Chung Hsing University. His research focuses on the design and characterization of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts, particularly coordination complexes and metal–organic frameworks, for CO₂ utilization and sustainable catalytic transformations.
Metal–Organic Frameworks as Robust Platforms for Copolymerization and CO₂ Valorization
TBA TBA
Metal–Organic Framework/TBA
Copolymerization catalysis in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) remains relatively unexplored despite their widespread applications in small-molecule transformations. Here we demonstrate that MOFs can be transformed into efficient catalysts for copolymerization by integrating molecular catalytic sites with framework confinement. Through bifunctional design and lattice confinement, MOF-based catalysts promote the coupling of epoxides with CO₂ to produce polycarbonates and the ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides with anhydrides to form ester–ether copolymers. The incorporation of Lewis acidic metal centers and tunable porosity enables high activity and excellent selectivity under mild conditions. Moreover, the confined catalytic species enhance structural robustness, allowing multiple catalytic cycles without loss of activity or crystallinity. These results highlight MOFs as versatile platforms for sustainable polymer synthesis and CO₂ valorization.