Discovery and In Situ Crystallization Studies of Cerium-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks with V-Shaped Linker Molecules.

We report the discovery and characterization of two porous Ce(III)-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with the V-shaped linker molecules 4,4'-sulfonyldibenzoate (SDB) and 4,4'-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)bis(benzoate) (hfipbb). The compounds of framework composition [Ce(HO)(SDB)] () and [Ce(hfipbb)] () were obtained by using a synthetic approach in acetonitrile that we recently established. Structure determination of was accomplished from 3D electron diffraction (3D ED) data, while could be refined against powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data using the crystal structure of an isostructural La-MOF as the starting model.