Towards novel MOFs containing diimide-based ligands

Abstract

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is an emerging class of porous materials with appealing properties, built from both inorganic and organic components. With structural diversity of MOFs arising not only from modifications of its organic and inorganic building blocks, but also from synthetic conditions, the field is growing at an exponentially fast rate for various potential applications. In this project, 4 new organic ligands (Linkers 1 – 4) were synthesized by C-N bond formation via condensation reactions. However, synthesizing the corresponding MOFs from 2 of these linkers (Linkers 1 and 4) were extremely challenging. Only microcrystalline Cu-MOF 5 and single crystals Zn-MOF 6 were successfully obtained using Linker 4 in solvothermal synthesis. Partial characterisation of these 2 MOFs were carried out using PXRD to determine the stability of Cu-MOF 5 after immersion in different organic solvents and to determine the bulk-phase purity for Zn-MOF 6.