Alternative synthetic approaches for metal–organic frameworks: transformation from solid matters

Abstract

Developing economic and sustainable synthetic strategies for metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is imperative for promoting MOF materials into large scale industrial use. Very recently, an alternative strategy for MOF synthesis by using solvent-insoluble "solid matters" as cation reservoirs and/or templates has been developed to accomplish this goal, in which the solid matters often refer to metals, metal oxides, hydroxides, carbonates, and so forth, but excluding the soluble metal salts which have been prevailingly used in MOF synthesis. Although most of the pioneering activities in this field have just started in the past 5 years, remarkable achievements have been made covering the synthesis, functionalization, positioning, and applications. A great number of MOFs in powder form, thin-films, or membranes, have been prepared through such solid-to-MOF transformations. This field is rapidly developing and expanding, and the number of related scientific publications has strikingly increased over the last few years. The aim of this review is to summarise the latest developments, highlight the present state-of-the-art, and also provide an overview for future research directions.

Hierarchical Nanostructures: Design for Sustainable Water Splitting

“…[173] Prussian blue analog (PBA) nanocubes have also been used for fabricating porous inorganic nanomaterials. For example, by simply treating Ni-Co PBA nanocubes with ammonium at room temperature, the precursor cubes would undergo an unusual structural evolution and transform into a cage-like nanostructure, which can be further converted to Ni-Co mixed oxide cages by the calcination in air (Figure 10a,b).…”

Low‐Dimensional Metal‐Organic Frameworks and their Diverse Functional Roles in Catalysis

“…Recently, reactive inorganic hard templates (metal oxides and hydroxides, etc.) have been used as a metal source for MOF construction . If the nucleation of MOFs could be restricted on the template surface while the template gets consumed as a source of metal cations, hollow MOF structures would be obtained.…”

Extrusion – back to the future: Using an established technique to reform automated chemical synthesis

“…Mechanochemical synthesis of several MOFs has been reported typically by ball milling [48], and James et al have scaled up the synthesis of HKUST-1, ZIF-8 and Al(fumarate)OH by TSE. Each synthesis involves the reaction between an organic ligand and metal salt.…”