Luís Mafra

Luís Mafra is currently a Principal Researcher at CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro. In 2006, he obtained his PhD from the University of Aveiro & University of Caen (Laboratoire de Catalyse et Spectrochimie), France, specializing in solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Throughout this period, he developed novel NMR methodologies, specially employing 1H high-resolution CRAMPS NMR techniques to elucidate the structure of hybrid materials. His work also extended to the development of methods for observing quadrupolar nuclei.

In 2011, Luís Mafra was a Postdoctoral fellow at Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung in Mainz, Germany. Published ca. 100 in Scientific Citation Index (SCI) journals, 5 book chapters and delivered around 60 talks and invited talks at conferences worldwide. Since 2010, he has been involved in technology transfer and collaborative research with various private entities, fostering connections between academia and industry.

Received various honors & awards, including: 2020 - European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant; 2014 - promoted to Principal Researcher under the national “Investigator FCT” competitive program. He was conferred the honorary title of Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 2014 and was a guest scientist at the University of Oviedo (Spain) in 2012. His early achievements include being the recipient of Celestino da Costa/Jean Perrin prize in 2006 and the António Xavier Bruker prize in 2009. He is a member of the editorial board of Solid-state NMR (Elsevier) and regularly participates as a reviewer for projects & research programs by governmental funding agencies across multiple countries.

Present Research Interests. Revolve around the synergetic application of solid-state NMR techniques, diffraction, and computational methods. Luís Mafra’s investigations focus on unraveling intermolecular interactions in small molecule pharmaceuticals, studying the structure of acid sites in heterogeneous porous catalysts, and probing CO2-sorption mechanisms at the surface of porous materials.

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ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1028-8354

Scopus ID: 8877889600

My research interests include the combination of advanced solid‐state (SSNMR) techniques with computational methods to study crystal packing interactions in small molecule powdered pharmaceuticals, and acidity in microporous materials (mostly zeolites) relevant for heterogeneous catalysis. Over the last years, I became interested in studying modified (porous) silica chemisorbents relevant for post- and pre-combustion CO2 capture applications. My main interest lies in the tandem use of SSNMR methods and modeling to study CO2 speciation at material’s surfaces using labeled gases containing NMR‐friendly isotopes. I try to develop NMR methodologies suitable to study at the atomic scale the CO2-sorption mechanism in a variety of porous sorbents either in pure CO2, binary mixtures or more complex gas compositions of industrial relevance.

Present members:

- Supervision of Paul Wiper (postdoctoral worker). Project between UA and BP Amoco Chemical Company and BP Chemicals, Ltd: Development and application of high-resolution solid-state NMR methods to study molecular sieve catalysts of industrial interest.
- Supervision (with Prof. João Rocha and Prof. Beat Meier, ETH Zürich) of Mariana Sardo (postdoctoral worker). Project: Employing high-resolution solid-state NMR at high magic-angle spinning frequencies for structural determination of microcrystalline proteins. (SFRH/BPD/65978/2009).
- Co-supervision (with Prof. João Rocha) of Sérgio Santos (postdoctoral worker). Project: NMR crystallography of powdered solids: a combined computational and experimental investigation. (SFRH/BPD/64752/2009).
- Supervision (in co-tutelle with Prof. Santiago García-Granda, Univ. of Oviedo, Spain) of Oleksii Pustovarenko (PhD student). Project: Modifications of nanoporous hybrid materials for gas conversion. November 2011
- Supervision (with Dr. Eurico Cabrita) of Lin Tian (postdoctoral worker). Project: Development of high-resolution 1H solid-state NMR methods and applications on materials and molecules of biological interest. (PTDC/QUIQUI/ 100998/2008).

Former members:

June 2011 - June 2012
-Supervision (with Dr. José Gomes) of Carlos Rezende (BI grant holder). Project: Development of high-resolution 1H solid-state NMR methods and applications on materials and molecules of biological interest. (PTDC/QUIQUI/ 100998/2008).
March 2011 - June 2011
-Co-supervision (with Dr. Juergen Senker, University of Bayreuth, Germany) of Julia Wack (visitor PhD student). January 2010 - August 2011
-Co-supervision of Yin-feng Han (postdoctoral worker). Project: Design, synthesis and properties of multi-functional transition-lanthanide chiral metal-bioorganic frameworks. (SFRH/BPD/46268/2009).
October 2009 - October 2010
-Supervision of Inês Alves under Initiation Research Grant (BII). Project: Estudos de RMN de materiais com interesse biológico e farmacológico. English translation: NMR studies of materials of biological and pharmaceutical interest. (BII 09 - CICECO).
Since April 2008
-Supervision of Renée Siegel (postdoctoral worker) in methodological developments involving quadrupolar and 1H spins and applications using solid-state NMR spectroscopy. (SFRH/BPD/44355/2008).
January 2008 - January 2009
Co-supervision of Leonel Alegre (postdoctoral worker). Project: From ancient pigments to modern paints: unveiling the secrets of Art with a little help from Nuclear Magnetic Resonance techniques. (SFRH/BPD/40505/2007).
October 2007 - August 2008
Supervision of Cristina Coelho (postdoctoral worker). Project: Development and application of 1H high-resolution NMR techniques to study hybrid solid materials. (SFRH/BPD/34136/2006).
July - August 2007
Supervision of Irina Stan, visiting Ph.D. student from Laboratoire de Catalyse et Spectrochimie, Université de Caen. Project: Basic concepts of solid-state NMR and optimisation of the 1H-14N R3 HETCOR sequence.

Čendak, T., Sequeira, L., Sardo, M., Valente, A., Pinto, M. P., Mafra, L., Detecting proton-transfer in CO2 species chemisorbed on amine-modifi ed mesoporous silicas using 13 C NMR chemical shift anisotropy and smart control of amine surface density. Chem. Eur. J., 2018, Accepted.

Mafra, L., Čendak, T., Schneider, S., Wiper, P. V., Pires, J., Gomes, J. R. B., Pinto, M., The structure of chemisorbed CO 2 species in amine-functionalized mesoporous silicas studied by solid-state NMR and computer modeling. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139 (2017) 389-408.

Wiper, P. V., Amelse, J., Mafra, L., Multinuclear solid-state NMR characterization of the Brønsted/Lewis acid properties in the BP HAMS-1B (H-[B]-ZSM-5) borosilicate molecular sieve using adsorbed TMPO and TBPO probe molecules. J. Catal., 316 (2014) 240-250.

Mafra, L. and Klinowski, J., Advanced solid-state NMR techniques for the study of molecular sieves. In Encyclopedia of Magnetic Resonance, (Eds Harris, R.K. and Wasylishen, R.), Wiley, 2012, (DOI: 10.1002/9780470034590.emrstm1307).

Mafra, L., Santos, S.M., Siegel, R., Alves, I., Paz, F., Dudenko, D. and Spiess, H. W., Packing interactions in hydrated and anhydrous forms of the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin: a solid-state NMR, X-ray diffraction and computer simulation study. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 134 (2012) 71-74.

Sardo, M., Siegel, R., Santos, S. M., Rocha, J., Gomes, J. R. B., Mafra, L., Combining Multinuclear High-Resolution Solid-State MAS NMR and Computational Methods for Resonance Assignment of Glutathione Tripeptide. J. Phys. Chem. A, 116 (2012) 6711-6719.

Siegel, R., Domingues, E., De Sousa, R., Jérôme, F., Morais, C. M., Bion, N., Ferreira, P., Mafra, L., Understanding the high catalytic activity of propylsulfonic acid-functionalized periodic mesoporous benzenesilicas by high-resolution 1H solid-state NMR spectroscopy. J. Mater. Chem., 22 (2012) 7412-7419.

Mafra, L., Siegel, R., Fernandez, C., Schneider, D., Aussenac, F. and Rocha, J., High-resolution 1H homonuclear dipolar recoupling NMR spectra of biological solids at MAS rates up to 67 kHz. J. Magn. Reson., 199 (2009) 111-114.