The primary focus of the Barbour group is to develop the tools to understand counterintuitive behaviour (particularly the dynamics of structural flexibility) of porous materials. In addition to detailed crystal structure analyses, we carry out physico-chemical measurements of the kinetics and thermodynamics of sorption processes. We also actively develop new devices and protocols that we apply routinely to our own research: these include an environmental gas cell for in-situ structural analysis of gas-loaded crystals (by means of single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction), and pressure-gradient differential scanning calorimetry.