<i>In situ</i> assembled ZIF superstructures <i>via</i> an emulsion-free soft-templating approach
Namita Singh, Sana Ahmed, Aliyah Fakim, Somayah Qutub, Othman Alahmed, Omar El Tall, Osama Shekhah, Mohamed Eddaoudi, Niveen M. Khashab
Abstract
Assembling well-defined MOF superstructures remains challenging as it requires easily removable hard templates or readily available immiscible solutions for an emulsion-based soft-template approach. In this work, a single-step emulsion-free soft templating approach is reported to spontaneously prepare hollow ZIF-8 and ZIF-67 colloidosomes with no further purification. These superstructures can load different enzymes regardless of the size and charge with a high encapsulation efficiency of 99%. We envisage that this work will expand the repertoires of MOF superstructures by the judicious selection of precursors and the reaction medium.