Research summary
Reticular synthesis joins inorganic clusters and organic carboxylate linkers into crystalline metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with ultrahigh porosity, thermal and chemical stability, and chemically tailorable interiors; the chemistry-and-applications review traced the discipline from prototype frameworks to gas separation, gas storage, and catalysis [1]. The isoreticular concept was demonstrated with MOF-5: starting from the octahedral Zn-O-C cluster and 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate, the pore could be expanded with biphenyl, terphenyl, tetrahydropyrene, and pyrene struts and functionalised with -Br, -NH2, -OC3H7, -OC5H11, -C2H4, and -C4H4 groups, with methane storage applications shown across the series [2]. A modular secondary-building-unit (SBU) framework was developed in which the geometric and chemical attributes of cluster fragments and polytopic linkers are used to predict topology and target highly porous, robust carboxylate frameworks by design [6]. MOF-5 itself adsorbed 4.5 wt% hydrogen at 78 K and 1.0 wt% at room temperature and 20 bar, with inelastic neutron scattering identifying two binding sites associated with Zn and the BDC linker [7]. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) were introduced through condensation of phenyl diboronic acid with hexahydroxytriphenylene to give COF-1 (P6_3/mmc, staggered) and COF-5 (P6/mmm, eclipsed), with 7-27 angstrom pores, thermal stability to 500-600 deg C, and rigid B-C-O frameworks [3]. Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) extend this design space using Zn(II) or Co(II) with imidazolate linkers on zeolite-like tetrahedral nets; ZIF-8 and ZIF-11 showed exceptional stability and permanent porosity [5], and a high-throughput protocol generated 25 ZIFs from 9,600 microreactions, with ZIF-68, ZIF-69, and ZIF-70 evaluated for CO2 capture [8]. An editorial framed the MOF field for a dedicated Chemical Reviews issue [4].
Recent publications
- The Chemistry and Applications of Metal-Organic FrameworksDOI
- Reticular synthesis and the design of new materialsDOI
- Design and synthesis of an exceptionally stable and highly porous metal-organic frameworkDOI
- Systematic Design of Pore Size and Functionality in Isoreticular MOFs and Their Application in Methane StorageDOI
- Porous, Crystalline, Covalent Organic FrameworksDOI
- Introduction to Metal鈥揙rganic FrameworksDOI
- Exceptional chemical and thermal stability of zeolitic imidazolate frameworksDOI
- Modular Chemistry: Secondary Building Units as a Basis for the Design of Highly Porous and Robust Metal鈭扥rganic Carboxylate FrameworksDOI
- Hydrogen Storage in Microporous Metal-Organic FrameworksDOI
- High-Throughput Synthesis of Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks and Application to CO 2 CaptureDOI
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External profiles
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5611-3325
- OpenAlex: openalex.org
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