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Updated: May 10, 2026

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs)
Published on: January 17, 2020
CFA-1: the first chiral metal-organic framework containing Kuratowski-type secondary building units
Phillip Schmieder1, Dmytro Denysenko, Maciej Grzywa
1Institute of Physics, Chair of Solid State and Materials Science, Augsburg University, Universitaetsstrasse 1, 86159 Augsburg, Germany.
Abstract:
The novel homochiral metal-organic framework CFA-1 (Coordination Framework Augsburg-1), [Zn5(OAc)4(bibta)3], containing the achiral linker {H2-bibta = 1H,1'H-5,5'-bibenzo[d][1,2,3]triazole}, has been synthesised. The reaction of H2-bibta and Zn(OAc)2·2H2O in N-methylformamide (NMF) (90 °C, 3 d) yields CFA-1 as trigonal prismatic single crystals. CFA-1 serves as a convenient precursor for the synthesis of isostructural frameworks with redox-active metal centres, which is demonstrated by the postsynthetic exchange of Zn(2+) by Co(2+) ions. The framework is robust to solvent removal and has been structurally characterized by synchrotron single-crystal X-ray diffraction and solid state NMR measurements ((13)C MAS- and (1)H MAS-NMR at 10 kHz). Results from MAS-NMR and IR spectroscopy studies are corroborated by cluster and periodic DFT calculations performed on CFA-1 cluster fragments.
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