Designed additive suppresses interpenetration in IRMOF-10.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• IRMOF-10, a metal-organic framework (MOF) based on biphenyl-4,4'-dicarboxylic acid and zinc, exhibits an open cubic structure susceptible to interpenetration.
• Interpenetration in MOFs can significantly reduce pore volume and surface area, limiting their performance in applications like gas storage and separation.
• Developing strategies to synthesize non-interpenetrated MOFs is crucial for maximizing their potential as porous materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To suppress interpenetration in IRMOF-10 using an additive design strategy.
• To achieve a high surface area and determine the single crystal structure of the non-interpenetrated material.
• To gain insights into the mechanism of interpenetration in the IRMOF-9/10 system.

Main Methods:

• Solvothermal synthesis of IRMOF-10 in the presence of a specific additive.
• Characterization of the synthesized material to determine its surface area and structure.
• In situ monitoring of crystal nucleation under polarized light to study interpenetration mechanisms.

Main Results:

• The additive design strategy successfully suppressed interpenetration in IRMOF-10.
• The synthesized material exhibited the highest reported surface area for IRMOF-10.
• Single crystal structure determination was achieved, and insights into the interpenetration mechanism were obtained.

Conclusions:

• Additive design is an effective strategy for preventing interpenetration in IRMOF-10.
• This approach leads to MOFs with enhanced surface area and pore volume, improving their properties as porous sorbents.
• The findings provide a generalizable roadmap for synthesizing non-interpenetrated MOFs with improved performance.