Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous crystalline solids with the ability to selectively concentrate large quantities of gases, offering significant promise as building blocks for energy and biomedical technologies. The surfaces of MOFs are frequently modified by polymers to ensure good compatibility or dispersibility in functional materials or liquids; however, the vast majority of current studies focus on MOF-polymer interactions in solid polymer matrices or organic solvents. Here we show that noncovalent complexation with biological or synthetic polymers enables control over the MOF-water interface. By understanding and manipulating macromolecule/MOF interactions, properties such as MOF dispersibility and structural stability can be finely tuned—for instance, the degradation rate of a hydrolytically unstable MOF in water can be controlled over 2 orders of magnitude depending on the polymer selection. Present studies provide a path toward controlling the properties of MOFs in water and using MOFs as a platform to understand the behavior of macromolecules at porous interfaces in aqueous media, a ubiquitous situation in Nature that is difficult to study given the sensitivity and complexity of biological systems.

Manipulating the interface between metal-organic frameworks and water using macromolecules

ACS Spring 2022

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