Chemistry of Metal–Organic Frameworks

Abstract

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), which are a class of porous crystalline materials formed by the self-assembly of organic and inorganic components, have received widespread interest over the past decades. Due to their extraordinarily high porosity, adjustable pore sizes, controllable surface functionality, and potential scalability, MOFs have great potential for application in areas such as gas capture and storage, sorbents, catalysis, and drug delivery. The judicious choice of both the organic and inorganic constituents of MOFs enables vast opportunities for framework design, leading to materials with intrinsically variable structures and properties. This chapter focuses on introducing MOFs as versatile materials and discussing how they can be synthesized by different synthesis methods and also characterized by several techniques. Finally, some important properties of MOFs, including electrochemical, optical, mechanical, thermal, and magnetic properties, are summarized.