Recently, we demonstrated that a porosity gradient can be imparted into bMOF-100 analogues via ligand exchange, by carefully controlling the ligand lengths and reaction conditions. We showed that the porosity gradient originates from the co-existence of ligands of different lengths in individual MOF crystals, which is manifested by a radial distribution based on their lengths. Here we show that the MOFs can consist of three ditopic ligands of different lengths, which make the difference among unit cells co-existing in crystals as large as ~1 nm. Thus the porosity gradient is even more significant. This MOF modification method promises gradual property shift inside porous crystals, which may lead to controllable transport and enrichment of guest species.

Porosity gradient within metal-organic frameworks

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.