Application of a chiral metal-organic framework in enantioselective separation.

A modular approach for the synthesis of highly ordered porous and chiral auxiliary (Evans auxiliary) decorated metal-organic frameworks is developed. Our synthesis strategy, which uses known porous structures as model materials for incorporation of chirality via linker modification, can provide access to a wide range of porous materials suitable for enantioselective separation and catalysis. Chiral analogues of UMCM-1 have been synthesized and investigated for the enantioseparation of chiral compounds in the liquid phase and first promising results are reported.

High-throughput screening: speeding up porous materials discovery.

A new tool (Infrasorb-12) for the screening of porosity is described, identifying high surface area materials in a very short time with high accuracy. Further, an example for the application of the tool in the discovery of new cobalt-based metal-organic frameworks is given.

A family of chiral metal-organic frameworks.

Chiral metal-organic frameworks with a three-dimensional network structure and wide-open pores (>30 Å) were obtained by using chiral trifunctional linkers and multinuclear zinc clusters. The linkers, H(3) ChirBTB-n, consist of a 4,4',4''-benzene-1,3,5-triyltribenzoate (BTB) backbone decorated with chiral oxazolidinone substituents. The size and polarity of these substituents determines the network topology formed under solvothermal synthesis conditions.

Heating and separation using nanomagnet-functionalized metal-organic frameworks.

A magnetic functionalization of microcrystalline MOF particles was realized using magnetic iron oxide particles. Such magnetic MOFs can be separated using a static magnetic field after use in catalytic processes and heated by an external alternating magnetic field to trigger desorption of encaged drug molecules.

New chiral and flexible metal-organic framework with a bifunctional spiro linker and Zn4O-nodes.

A new chiral Metal-Organic Framework (MOF), named DUT-7, has been synthesized from enantiopure (S)-2,2'-spirobiindane-5,5'-dicarboxylic acid ((S)-H(2)L) and zinc nitrate. The framework of the compound has the composition Zn(4)O((S)-L)(3) as it is found for the IRMOF series, but in contrast to these MOFs, the crystal structure of DUT-7(RT) (RT: room temperature) which has to be assigned to the chiral space group P6(3)22, has a completely different topology. The Zn(4)O clusters are not coordinated in an octahedral fashion but show only C(3) symmetry and are arranged in a trigonal-prismatic manner.

Catalytic properties of MIL-101.

A very high catalytic activity in the cyanosilylation reaction was observed for MIL-101, a chromium based metal-organic framework; moreover, MIL-101 is also a remarkably stable support for palladium in hydrogenation reactions, with significantly higher activity than e.g. palladium on activated carbon.