Hot Highlight: Porphyrinic metal organic frameworks

Three types of possible pillaring present in porphyrin paddlewheel frameworks using a 4,4'-bipyridine ligand

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a hot topic of research in crystal engineering given the range of potential applications, including catalysis, gas storage and sensing. The construction of the crystalline materials is very important to determine the properties of the material and this is controlled by careful selection of linkers (organic molecules) and joints (metal ions or clusters). 

Porphyrins provide a versatile choice of linker as they can accommodate a range of transition metals and main group elements, this allows metals to be introduced into the frameworks without the need for them to also act as joints, making the metal ions more accessible and increasing interaction with guest molecules. 

Schematic illustration of a metal–organic framework, assembled from metal nodes and metalloligands

Porphyrin based MOFs have been reported by Robson, Goldberg, Suslick, Li, Choe, Hupp, Ma and others, this Hot Highlight by Brandon Burnett, Paul Barron and Wonyoung Choe reviews the recent advances in porphyrinic MOFs, focussing on materials design, synthetic strategies and emerging applications. 

You can download the article below, which is free to access for 4 weeks 

Recent advances in porphyrinic metal–organic frameworks: materials design, synthetic strategies, and emerging applications
Brandon J. Burnett, Paul M. Barron and Wonyoung Choe
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06692K 

Also of interest 

Highly tunable metal–organic frameworks with open metal centers
Eun-Young Choi, Curtis A. Wray, Chunhua Hu and Wonyoung Choe
CrystEngComm, 2009, 11, 553-555
DOI: 10.1039/B819707P 

A mixed-linker porphyrin framework with CdI2-type topology
Eun-Young Choi, Paul M. Barron, Richard W. Novotney, Chunhua Hu, Young-UK Kwon and Wonyoung Choe
CrystEngComm, 2008, 10, 824-826
DOI: 10.1039/B720035H 

Four new 2D porous polymeric frames from the self-assembly of silver triflate and silver tosylate with free-base and Zn-metallated 5,10,15,20-tetra(4-pyridyl)Porphyrin
Lucia Carlucci, Gianfranco Ciani, Davide M. Proserpio and Francesca Porta
CrystEngComm, 2005, 7, 78-86
DOI: 10.1039/B417709F 

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