The quest for advanced functionalities in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) will inevitably encounter the increasing complexity in their architectures. Various strategies have been put forward to introduce functionalities into MOFs. Among them, the core-shell strategy can increase MOF complexity to an additional level, where one MOF with one set of unique properties is encapsulated in a second MOF, thus dramatically extend the research field and potential applications of MOFs. In this presentation, the synthesis of a series of core-shell MOFs, with mesoporous PCN-222 (PCN = porous coordination network) cores and microporous UiO MOF shells, through a one-pot synthesis by controlling the nucleation kinetics of MOF growth, will be presented. Isoreticular expansion of UiO shells and orthogonal modification of the core/shell species can be realized in PCN-222@UiO systems to produce multifunctional MOF composites. The inner core, PCN-222, exhibits biomimetic catalytic activities, while the shell layer, UiO-series, can be isoreticularly expanded by changing the length of ligands to modulate the size selectivity. The combination makes these core-shell MOFs promising catalysts for selective olefin epoxidation.

Tune the catalytic selectivity of core-shell metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) by changing the length of the linker in the shell

254th National Meeting (2017)

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