Reversible Encapsulation of Xenon and CH₂ Cl₂ in a Solid-State Molecular Organometallic Framework (Guest@SMOM)

Reversible encapsulation of CH₂ Cl₂ or Xe in a non-porous solid-state molecular organometallic framework of [Rh(Cy₂ PCH₂ PCy₂ )(NBD)][BAr^F₄ ] occurs in single-crystal to single-crystal transformations. These processes are probed by solid-state NMR spectroscopy, including ¹²⁹ Xe SSNMR. Non-covalent interactions with the -CF₃ groups, and hydrophobic channels formed, of [BAr^F₄ ]^- anions are shown to be important, and thus have similarity to the transport of substrates and products to and from the active site in metalloenzymes.