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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Synthesis and Characterization of Functionalized Metal-organic Frameworks
Published on: September 5, 2014
Guest-Induced Switchable Breathing Behavior in a Flexible Metal-Organic Framework with Pronounced Negative Gas
Yi-Xiang Shi1, Wu-Xiang Li1, Wen-Hua Zhang1
1College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science , Soochow University , Suzhou 215123 , Jiangsu , PR China.
Abstract:
Flexible metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted great interest for their dynamically structural transformability in response to external stimuli. Herein, we report a switchable "breathing" or "gate-opening" behavior associated with the phase transformation between a narrow pore (np) and a large pore (lp) in a flexible pillared-layered MOF, denoted as MOF-1 as, which is also confirmed by SCXRD and PXRD. The desolvated phase (MOF-1 des) features a unique stepwise adsorption isotherm for N2 coupled with a pronounced negative gas adsorption pressure. For comparison, however, no appreciable CO2 adsorption and gate-opening phenomenon with stepwise sorption can be observed. Furthermore, the polar micropore walls decorated with thiophene groups in MOF-1 des reveals the selective sorption of toluene over benzene and p-xylene associated with self-structural adjustment in spite of the markedly similar physicochemical properties of these vapor molecules.
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