Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are excellent platforms for developing designer catalysts à la carte. MOFs are crystalline materials composed of isolated metal-oxide clusters connected through organic ligands. These frameworks offer a vast variety of architectures and porosities, and are highly functionable. Being that MOF properties are strongly linked to their chemical composition, chemists have pursued reaching control over MOF chemistry for the ultimate use of these materials in catalysis. We have recently demonstrated that, beyond a trial-and-error approach, MOF design can be computationally guided. However, many aspects regarding the local structural nature of catalytic sites in MOFs, as in many other catalytic materials, remain poorly understood at a fundamental level. What is the real structure of catalysts under operando conditions? How dynamic are these materials? Which are the local and long-range distortions and rearrangements with ultimate implications in catalysis? Using pair distribution function (PDF) data derived from synchrotron-based X-ray total scattering measurements to probe local atomic structure of MOFs under conditions relevant for activation and catalysis, we can finally give a more realistic structural picture of MOFs.

Following chemistry and catalysis in metal-organic frameworks using advanced synchrotron x-ray scattering tools

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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