Reticular Chemistry with Art: A Case Study of Olympic Rings-Inspired Metal–Organic Frameworks
Jincheng Si, Hai‐Lun Xia, Kang Zhou, Jingbai Li, Jingbai Li, Kai Xing, Jiafeng Miao, Jian Zhang, Hao Wang, Lulu Qu, Xiao‐Yuan Liu, Jing Li, Jing Li
Abstract
Herein, we demonstrate the successful utilization of reticular chemistry as an excellent designing strategy for the deliberate construction of a zirconium–tetracarboxylate metal–organic framework (MOF) inspired by the Olympic rings. HIAM-4017, with an unprecedented (4,8)-c underlying net topology termed jcs, was developed via insightful reconstruction of the rings and judicious design of a nonsymmetric organic linker. HIAM-4017 exhibits high porosity and excellent chemical and thermal stability. Furthermore, excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) was achieved in an isoreticular MOF, HIAM-4018, with a large Stokes shift of 155 nm as a result of introducing the hydroxyl group to the linker skeleton to induce OH···N interactions. Such interactions were analyzed thoroughly by employing the time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). Because of their good thermal and chemical stability, and strong luminescence, nanosized HIAM-4017 and HIAM-4018 were fabricated and used for Cr2O72– detection. Both MOFs demonstrate excellent sensitivity and selectivity. This work represents a neat example of building structure- and property-specific MOFs guided by reticular chemistry.