ZIF-360

Paper: Principles of Designing Extra-Large Pore Openings and Cages in Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks

Authors: J. Yang, Y.-B. Zhang, Q. Liu, C. A. Trickett, E. Gutierrez-Puebla, M. Á. Monge, H. Cong, A. Aldossary, H. Deng, and O. M. Yaghi

Citation: J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 6448–6455

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b02272

Abstract: We report three design principles for obtaining extra-large pore openings and cages in the metal-organic analogues of inorganic zeolites, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs). Accordingly, we prepared a series of fifteen ZIFs, members of which have the largest pore opening (22.5 Å) and the largest cage size (45.8 Å) known for all porous tetrahedral structures. The key parameter allowing us to access these exceptional ZIFs is what we define as the steric index (δ), which is related to the size and shape of the imidazolate linkers employed in the synthesis. The three principles are based on using multiple linkers with specific range and ratios of δ to control the size of rings and cages from small to large, and therefore are universally applicable to all existing ZIFs. The ZIF with the largest cage size (ZIF-412) shows the best selectivity of porous materials tested towards removal of octane and p-xylene from humid air.