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Updated: Aug 12, 2025

Synthesis and Characterization of Functionalized Metal-organic Frameworks
Published on: September 5, 2014
Truchet-tile structure of a topologically aperiodic metal-organic framework
Emily G Meekel1, Ella M Schmidt1,2, Lisa J Cameron3
1Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QR, UK.
Abstract:
When tiles decorated to lower their symmetry are joined together, they can form aperiodic and labyrinthine patterns. Such Truchet tilings offer an efficient mechanism of visual data storage related to that used in barcodes and QR codes. We show that the crystalline metal-organic framework [OZn4][1,3-benzenedicarboxylate]3 (TRUMOF-1) is an atomic-scale realization of a complex three-dimensional Truchet tiling. Its crystal structure consists of a periodically arranged assembly of identical zinc-containing clusters connected uniformly in a well-defined but disordered fashion to give a topologically aperiodic microporous network. We suggest that this unusual structure emerges as a consequence of geometric frustration in the chemical building units from which it is assembled.
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