Porous, lightweight, metal organic materials: environment sustainability

Abstract

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline inorganic-organichybrid materials that are assembled and sustained by coordination bonds between metal ions or metal-oxo clusters and negatively charged organic linkers bearing a complexing function (e.g., carboxylate, phosphonate, azolate .). The emerging research interest in MOFs results from the simultaneous occurrence of five key characteristics that are (i) the crystallinity, (ii) the tunable porosity, (iii) high surface area (MOF materials have so far the highest surface area of all porous materials), (iv) the existence of strong metal-ligand interactions, and (v) the structural diversity that allows to precisely design materials for a particular application.