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Metal-organic frameworks

Grown into shape

Nature Chemistry volume 3, pages 347–348 (2011)Cite this article

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Keeping the organic and inorganic precursors in separate, immiscible solutions guides the growth of metal-organic frameworks into uniform thin layers that are shaped just like the liquid-liquid interface.

Crystalline, and often highly porous, materials composed of metal centres connected through coordination bonds to organic linkers exhibit properties that have shown promise in an ever-increasing variety of fields over the past decade or so1. However these hybrid solids — often called metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) or porous coordination polymers — are typically obtained as crystalline powders.

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Figure 1: Hollow spheres of Cu–BTC MOF formed by a self-healing mechanism at the interface between two solutions.

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  1. Russell E. Morris is at the School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, and Sasol Technology UK, St Andrews, KY16 9ST, UK,

    Russell E. Morris

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  1. Russell E. Morris
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Correspondence to Russell E. Morris.

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Morris, R. Grown into shape. Nature Chem 3, 347–348 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1036

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