Single- and mixed-linker Cr-MIL-101 derivatives: a high-throughput investigation

New single- and mixed-linker Cr-MIL-101 derivatives bearing different functional groups have been synthesized. The influence of the reaction parameters, such as metal source (CrO3, CrCl3, and Cr(NO3)3·9H2O) or linker composition, on product formation have been investigated using high-throughput methods. Highly crystalline Cr-MIL-101 materials were obtained with CrCl3 as the metal source with either 2-bromoterephthalic (TA-Br) or 2-nitroterephthalic (TA-NO2) acid as one of the mixed-linker components. On the basis of these results, numerous new mixed-linker Cr-MIL-101 derivatives containing -NH2, -NO2, -H, -SO3H, -Br, -OH, -CH3, and -COOH have been synthesized. The use of TA-NH2 and TA-OH were shown, under the same reaction conditions, to lead to decarboxylation and the formation of 3-amino- and 3-hydroxybenzoic acid, respectively. Furthermore, we were also able to directly synthesize single-linker Cr-MIL-101-X derivatives with X = F, Cl, Br, CH3. Postsynthetic modification was used to selectively reduce the mixed-linker compound Cr-MIL-101-Br-NO2 to Cr-MIL-101-Br-NH2. To establish the successful incorporation of the linker molecules and possible decomposition of certain starting materials, (1)H NMR spectra of dissolved reaction products were recorded.