A promising route toward the enantioselective recognition and separation of racemic molecules is the design of chiral metal−organic frameworks (CMOFs) with high enantioselectivity and stability. Herein, we report porous CMOFs Δand Λ-RuEu-MOFs constructed from the D 3 -symmetry helical chiral Ru(phen) 3 -derived tricarboxylate ligand and Eu 2 units, which can be utilized as adsorbents for the enantioselective recognition and separation of 1,1′-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL) derivatives. Investigation of the circular dichroism enantiodifferentiation between the host and guest suggested that Δand Λ-RuEu-MOFs can be employed as chiral sensors to discriminate axial enantiomers due to their diastereomeric host−guest relationship. Density functional theory calculations reveal that chiral recognition is attributed to the distinguishing binding affinities stemming from N•••H−O hydrogen bonds and π−π stacking between the host and guest. Moreover, the reticulate structure of Δand Λ-RuEu-MOFs can be readily recycled and reused for the successive enantioselective separation of BINOL up to 80% ee.
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