Versatile rare earth hexanuclear clusters for the design and synthesis of highly-connected -MOFs.

A series of highly porous MOFs were deliberately targeted to contain a 12-connected rare earth hexanuclear cluster and quadrangular tetracarboxylate ligands. The resultant MOFs have an underlying topology of , and are thus (4,12)-c -MOFs. This targeted rare earth -MOF platform offers the potential to assess the effect of pore functionality and size, ligand functionalization and/or expansion, on the adsorption properties of relevant gases.

A supermolecular building approach for the design and construction of metal-organic frameworks.

In this review, we describe two recently implemented conceptual approaches facilitating the design and deliberate construction of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), namely supermolecular building block (SBB) and supermolecular building layer (SBL) approaches. Our main objective is to offer an appropriate means to assist/aid chemists and material designers alike to rationally construct desired functional MOF materials, made-to-order MOFs. We introduce the concept of net-coded building units (net-cBUs), where precise embedded geometrical information codes uniquely and matchlessly a selected net, as a compelling route for the rational design of MOFs.

Porous materials with optimal adsorption thermodynamics and kinetics for CO2 separation.

The energy costs associated with the separation and purification of industrial commodities, such as gases, fine chemicals and fresh water, currently represent around 15 per cent of global energy production, and the demand for such commodities is projected to triple by 2050 (ref. 1). The challenge of developing effective separation and purification technologies that have much smaller energy footprints is greater for carbon dioxide (CO2) than for other gases; in addition to its involvement in climate change, CO2 is an impurity in natural gas, biogas (natural gas produced from biomass), syngas (CO/H2, the main source of hydrogen in refineries) and many other gas streams.

The unique rht-MOF platform, ideal for pinpointing the functionalization and CO2 adsorption relationship.

The uniqueness of the rht-MOF platform, based on the singular (3,24)-connected net, allows for the facile design and synthesis of functionalized materials for desired applications. Here we designed a nitrogen-rich trefoil hexacarboxylate (trigonal tri-isophthalate) ligand, which serves to act as the trigonal molecular building block while concurrently coding the formation of the targeted truncated cuboctahedral supermolecular building block (in situ), and enhancing the CO(2) uptake in the resultant rht-MOF.

The quest for modular nanocages: tbo-MOF as an archetype for mutual substitution, functionalization, and expansion of quadrangular pillar building blocks.

A new blueprint network for the design and synthesis of porous, functional 3D metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has been identified, namely, the tbo net. Accordingly, tbo-MOFs based on this unique (3,4)-connected net can be exclusively constructed utilizing a combination of well-known and readily targeted [M(R-BDC)](n) MOF layers [i.e.