Although CO 2 insertion is a predominant phenomenon in diamine-functionalized Mg 2 (dobpdc) (dobpdc 4À = 4,4-dioxidobiphenyl-3,3'-dicarboxylate) adsorbents, a high-performance metal-organic framework for capturing CO 2 , the fundamental function of the diamine carbon chain length in the mechanism remains unclear. Here, Mg 2 (dobpdc) systems with open metal sites grafted by primary diamines NH 2 À (CH 2 ) n À NH 2 were developed, with en (n = 2), pn (n = 3), bn (n = 4), pen (n = 5), hn (n = 6), and on (n = 8). Based on CO 2 adsorption and IR results, CO 2 insertion is involved in frameworks with n = 2 and 3 but not in systems with n � 5. According to NMR data, bn-appended Mg 2 (dobpdc) exhibited three different chemical environments of carbamate units, attributed to different relative conformations of carbon chains upon CO 2 insertion, as validated by firstprinciples density functional theory (DFT) calculations. For 1-hn and 1-on, DFT calculations indicated that diamine intercoordinated open metal sites in adjacent chains bridged by carboxylates and phenoxides of dobpdc 4À . Computed CO 2 binding enthalpies for CO 2 insertion (À 27.8 kJ mol À 1 for 1-hn and À 20.2 kJ mol À 1 for 1-on) were comparable to those for CO 2 physisorption (À 19.3 kJ mol À 1 for 1-hn and À 20.8 kJ mol À 1 for 1on). This suggests that CO 2 insertion is likely to compete with CO 2 physisorption on diamines of the framework when n � 5.