While bulk-sized metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) face limits to their utilization in various research fields such as energy storage applications, nanoarchitectonics is believed to be a possible solution.

Metal cyanide coordination compounds are recognized as promising candidates for broad applications because of their tailorable and adjustable frameworks. Developing the nanostructure of a coordination compound may be an effective way to enhance the performance of that material in application-based roles. A controllable preferential etching method is described for synthesis of monocrystalline Prussian blue analogue (PBA) nanoframes, without the use of organic additives. The PBA nanoframes show remarkable rate performance and cycling stability for sodium/lithium ion insertion/extraction.

Despite a continuously growing interest in the integration of coordination polymer (CP) colloids toward functional materials, collective properties of the CP colloids have rarely been addressed mainly due to the difficulty in assembling pure CP colloids into superstructures with impressive mechanical strength. We demonstrated that CP nanoplates could stack together spontaneously upon drying the slurry of the nanoplates. The stacked CP nanoplates could work like polymeric adhesives. Versatile articles could be glued when the CP nanoplates were sandwiched between two substrates. In addition, the CP nanoplates themselves could form well-defined bulk structures without using any additional adhesives. The anisotropic shape together with the lamellar stacking way of the CP nanoplates were found to be the key points in leading to the adhesion and cohesion effect. The reasonable adhesion strength of the CP nanoglues can allow the exploration of further applications of integrated CP colloids in the future.

Communications 8228