Fabrication of nanoporous networks with tunable triangular cavities with a molecular template

Herein we report a systematic construction of highly regular 2D triangular nanoporous networks by host-guest interaction. All molecular building blocks have the same four carboxylic acids groups, while the lengths of the blocks increase from 1.94 nm up to 2.90 nm. By using a suitably designed guest molecule, called coronene, we have fabricated steady porous network with tunable size of the edge length of the triangular pores of 3.2 nm, 3.7 nm and 4.1 nm at the liquid-solid interface. The results clearly demonstrate this approach may be also an efficient method to form the porous structures stable and controllable both in shape and in size.