About

Casey Wade is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The Ohio State University. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2006 and completed his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University in 2011, where he studied the chemistry of boron and antimony Lewis acids under the supervision of Prof. François Gabbaï. Following his doctoral studies, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with Prof. Mircea Dincă, focusing on the synthesis and applications of metal-organic frameworks. His research resides at the interface of molecular inorganic/organometallic chemistry and materials science, with a focus on designing new materials for catalysis and molecular separation. His projects include the synthesis and study of metal-organic frameworks containing organometallic catalyst sites and the development of bio-inspired MOF adsorbents for trace CO₂ capture. His work involves solution and solid-state characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction, gas porosimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, ICP-OES, cyclic voltammetry, NMR, IR, and UV-Vis spectroscopies. Wade's contributions include pioneering the design of 'pincerMOFs' assembled from transition metal diphosphine pincer complexes, which demonstrate significant differences in catalytic activity and selectivity compared to homogeneous analogues. His research also explores bioinspired MOFs for atmospheric CO₂ capture, aiming to develop energy-efficient solid adsorbents for climate change mitigation.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Materials science
• Inorganic chemistry
• Medicinal chemistry

Selected publications

• Regioselective Arene C–H Borylation with a MOF-Immobilized Iridium Bipyridine Catalyst

  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 2026-02-13

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Postsynthetic ligand exchange and metalation have been used to immobilize iridium bipyridine precatalysts in MFU-4l with controlled loadings. The resulting materials, 1-Ir-x (x = 0.1–0.5), exhibit high activity for catalytic C–H borylation of arenes, and 1-Ir-0.5 achieves up to 1560 turnover numbers per Ir for toluene substrate. Remarkably, 1-Ir-0.5 exhibits high meta:para product regioselectivity compared to a homogeneous catalyst analogue for arene substrates bearing bulky triisopropylsilyl groups. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that steric constraints imposed by metal-organic framework (MOF) pore confinement increase the free energy barrier for para C–H activation, biasing product formation toward the meta isomer.

  PublisherDOI

• Research data supporting "17O-1H correlation NMR spectroscopy provides accessible and direct insights into CO2 capture chemistry"

  Open MIND · 2026-04-22

  datasetOpen access

  Research data including NMR spectra, characterisation and computational data sets. See README files.

  PublisherDOI

• 17O-1H correlation NMR spectroscopy provides accessible and direct insights into CO2 capture chemistry

  ChemRxiv · 2026-01-11

  articleOpen access

  17O NMR spectroscopy is emerging as a powerful probe of the chemistry of CO2 capture and storage materials. However, the technique is currently underutilised, owing to (i) challenging spectral interpretation of quadrupolar nuclei (I = 5/2), especially when multiple oxygen environments are present, and (ii) the need for ultra-high magnetic field to obtain well resolved spectra. In this work, we demonstrate and develop 17O-1H NMR correlation methods for application to CO2 capture materials. Utilising the robust and accessible nature of PRESTO and D-RINEPT sequences, we provide insights into CO2 binding sites in hydroxide-based metal-organic frameworks, MFU-4l-OH and CFA-1-OH. We report results readily obtained at accessible field strengths down to 9.4 T and provide a refined model for the binding mechanism in CFA-1-OH, through uniquely accessible information of the zinc hydroxide binding sites. Finally, we include a brief Additional Information section at the end of this article detailing practical considerations for new 17O-1H correlation pulse sequence users.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 17O-1H correlation NMR spectroscopy provides accessible and direct insights into CO2 capture chemistry.

  Apollo (University of Cambridge) · 2026-03-25

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• 17O- <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si41.svg" display="inline" id="d1e723"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> H correlation NMR spectroscopy provides accessible and direct insights into CO <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si42.svg" display="inline" id="d1e731"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> capture chemistry

  Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance · 2026-04-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  17 O NMR spectroscopy is emerging as a powerful probe of the chemistry of CO 2 capture and storage materials. However, the technique is currently underutilised, owing to (i) challenging spectral interpretation of quadrupolar nuclei (I = 5/2), especially when multiple oxygen environments are present, and (ii) the restricted access to ultra-high magnetic fields that are often required to obtain high signal-to-noise spectra. In this work, we demonstrate and expand the use of 17 O- 1 H NMR correlation methods for application to CO 2 capture materials. Utilising the robust and accessible nature of PRESTO and D -RINEPT sequences, we provide insights into CO 2 binding sites in hydroxide-based metal–organic frameworks, MFU-4l-OH and CFA-1-OH. We report results readily obtained at accessible field strengths down to 9.4 T, highlighting the pros and cons compared to ultra-high field acquisition, and provide a refined model for the binding mechanism in CFA-1-OH, through uniquely accessible information of the zinc hydroxide binding sites. Finally, we include a brief Additional Information section at the end of this article detailing practical considerations for new 17 O- 1 H correlation pulse sequence users. • Robust 17 O- 1 H NMR correlation methods for CO 2 capture demonstrated. • Practical guide for implementation of PRESTO and D-RINEPT sequences. • CO 2 emissions and cryogen footprint of ultra-high and lower field NMR compared. • New CO 2 binding mechanism in CFA-1-OH of combined Zn-E2 and Zn-A sites confirmed.

  PublisherDOI

• In or out? Adaptive metal binding by a diphosphine-based Zr metal–organic cage

  Dalton Transactions · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  results in formation of Zr-P2N2-Ag, containing a hexasilver core supported by phosphine complexation within the cage interior. This work highlights the adaptive structural behavior of Zr-P2N2 which provides new opportunities for designing responsive MOCs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• MOF-Supported Diphosphine Ligands for Iridium-Catalyzed C–H Borylation of Arenes

  Inorganic Chemistry · 2025-04-02 · 2 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Postsynthetic methods have been used to immobilize a carboxylate-functionalized diphosphine ligand, N,N-bis[(diphenylphosphino)methyl]glycinate (dppmg), in different metal–organic framework (MOF) supports. H(dppmg) reacts quantitatively with Zn–OH groups in MFU-4l-OH (1) to provide solid-state ligands (1-H-x) with controllable diphosphine loadings. Postsynthetic metalation with [Ir(OMe)(cod)]2 (cod = 1,5-cyclooctadiene) generates heterogeneous precatalysts (1-Ir-x) that show excellent activity toward C–H borylation of arenes. This activity is dependent on both the catalyst site density and initial concentration of the borylating reagent. Homogeneous catalysts supported by analogous diphosphine ligands exhibit low catalytic activity, demonstrating the beneficial role of catalyst site isolation. Immobilization of dppmg-Ir catalysts at the Zr-based nodes of MOF-808 (2-P-Ir) and NU-1000 (3-P-Ir) results in materials with relatively poor catalytic activity toward C–H borylation of toluene, revealing the importance of the MOF support in catalyst design.

  PublisherDOI

• Comparative study of metal–organic frameworks synthesized <i>via</i> imide condensation and coordination assembly

  RSC Advances · 2024-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  separation. This study establishes imide condensation of preformed metal-organic clusters with organic linkers as a viable route for MOF design.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Solid-State Phosphine Ligand Engineering via Postsynthetic Modification of Amine-Functionalized Metal–Organic Frameworks

  Organometallics · 2024-01-31 · 4 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Postsynthetic phospha-Mannich condensation has been investigated for the design of solid-state phosphine ligands using amine-functionalized metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). Hydroxymethylphosphine precursors Ph2P(CH2OH), PhP(CH2OH)2, and CyP(CH2OH)2 readily condense at the 2-aminoterephthalate linkers of MIL-101(Al)-NH2 and IRMOF-3 to generate the phosphine-functionalized MOFs MIL/IRMOF-PPh2-x, MIL/IRMOF-PPh-x, and MIL/IRMOF-PCy-x, respectively, where x denotes the phosphine loading per amine site. Solution-state 1H and 31P{1H} nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of base-digested MOFs reveal that PhP(CH2OH)2 and CyP(CH2OH)2 react at the amine groups of the adjacent linkers, resulting in intraframework cross-linking. The phosphinated MOFs have been investigated as solid-state ligands for the Ir-catalyzed C–H borylation of arenes. MIL-PPh-0.1 and MIL-PCy-0.1 exhibit good activity for the benchmark C–H borylation of toluene when metalated with [Ir(OMe)(cod)]2 (cod = 1,5-cyclooctadiene). MIL-PPh2-0.1 and the IRMOF-3 derivatives show little or no catalytic turnover under the same conditions, revealing that the phosphine connectivity and MOF topology and pore size are critical factors in solid-state ligand design.

  PublisherDOI

• Rh → Sb Interactions Supported by Tris(8-quinolyl)antimony Ligands

  Organometallics · 2024-08-15 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  The ligands tris(8-quinolyl)stibine and tris(6-methyl-8-quinolyl)stibine have been synthesized and complexed to rhodium using (MeCN)3RhCl3. The resulting complexes feature an unusual [RhSb]VI core as a result of the formal insertion of the antimony center into one of the Rh–Cl bonds. Computational analysis using density functional theory (DFT) methods reveals that the resulting Rh–Sb σ bond is polarized toward the Rh atom, suggesting a description of this linkage as a Rh → Sb Z-type interaction.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Using Metal-Organic Frameworks to Harness Molecular Catalysts for Selective C-H Functionalization

  NSF · $685k · 2021–2027

Frequent coauthors

• François P. Gabbaı̈

  Texas A&M University

  76 shared

• James S. Jones

  Texas A&M University

  21 shared

• Benjamin R. Reiner

  12 shared

• Abebu A. Kassie

  11 shared

• Tzu‐Pin Lin

  ExxonMobil (United States)

  8 shared

• Klaus Schmidt‐Rohr

  8 shared

• Mircea Dincǎ

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  8 shared

• Jordon S. Hilliard

  The Ohio State University

  8 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Chemistry

  Texas A&M University

  2011

• BS, Chemistry

  University of Nebraska-Lincoln

  2006

Awards & honors

• John S. Swenton Award for Outstanding Teaching