Post-synthetic metalation is strategically employed to imbue Metal-organic Frameworks (MOFs) with enhanced performance characteristics. However, obtaining precise structural information for metal centred reactions that take place within the pores of these materials, has remained an elusive goal. This is primarily due to the significant reduction in crystallinity that results from carrying-out post-synthetic reactions on MOF crystals. Here we report a new MOF comprised of pore cavities that are lined with vacant metal coordinating groups poised for post-synthetic metalation with a variety of first (Cu, Co, Zn) and second (Cd, Rh) row transition metals in quantitative yield. These metalations occur without appreciable loss of crystallinity enabling the examination of the products of consecutive inorganic reactions within single MOF crystals by X-ray diffraction.

MOFs: Nanosized windows into �ngstrom space

248th National Meeting (2014)

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