A composite of Keggin-type phosphotungstic acid (H3PW12O40) encapsulated in sized-matched metal–organic framework UiO-67 (PW12@UiO-67) was prepared as a heterogeneous catalyst for extractive and catalytic oxidative desulfurization systems (ECODS).

Chiroptical activity is observed from an achiral adenine-containing metal-organic framework (MOF) named ZnFDCA. Such a seemingly counterintuitive phenomenon can, in fact, be predicted by the intrinsic crystal symmetry of 4̅2 m point group. Although theoretically allowed, examples of optically active achiral crystals are extremely rare. ZnFDCA is the first reported achiral MOF showing optical activity, as demonstrated by a pair of circular dichroism signals with opposite signs and enhanced intensity. Moreover, simply through adding an amino substituent to adenine, the chiroptical activity, as well as nonlinear optical activity, of the analogous MOF, namely ZnFDCA-NH, disappears due to diverse packing pattern giving rise to centrosymmetric crystal symmetry.

In contrast to the regular postsynthetic modification (PSM) approach which is global and random in principle, a diffusion-controlled PSM strategy utilizing size mismatch between pores and reactants has been developed to target selective functionalization and fine-tuning of material performance.

Shape complementarity is a biological craft for precisely binding substrates at protein–protein interfaces. An analogy to such a function can be drawn conceptually for crystalline porous solids; yet the manifested entities are rare in reticular chemistry. The bottleneck‐shaped pores carved out of a metal‐organic framework, Zn(MIBA)2 (aka. MAF‐stu‐13), can perfectly accommodate benzene molecules. Remarkably, its framework adapts to the optimal guest binding‐the enhanced host–guest interactions in the neck in turn minimize the guest‐guest repulsion in the pore to the extent it turns into attraction‐as demonstrated by the combined X‐ray structural and DFT computational studies. This adaptive material can be used for liquid‐phase production of ultrahigh‐purity (≥99 %) cyclohexane, achieving a balance between uptake capacity and separation selectivity and surpassing the performances of other porous and nonporous crystals reported recently (e.g. product purity 99.4 % vs. 97.5 % to date).