One-dimensional alignment of defects in a flexible metal-organic framework

Yao Fu; Alexander C Forse; Zhengzhong Kang; Matthew J Cliffe; Weicheng Cao; Jinglin Yin; Lina Gao; Zhenfeng Pang; Tian He; Qinlong Chen; Qi Wang; Jeffrey R Long; Jeffrey A Reimer; Xueqian Kong

doi:10.1126/sciadv.ade6975

One-dimensional alignment of defects in a flexible metal-organic framework

Sci Adv. 2023 Feb 10;9(6):eade6975. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ade6975. Epub 2023 Feb 10.

Authors

Yao Fu^{1

2

3}, Alexander C Forse^{3

4

5}, Zhengzhong Kang², Matthew J Cliffe⁶, Weicheng Cao², Jinglin Yin², Lina Gao², Zhenfeng Pang², Tian He², Qinlong Chen², Qi Wang², Jeffrey R Long^{3

5

7}, Jeffrey A Reimer³, Xueqian Kong^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China.
² Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China.
³ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
⁶ School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
⁷ Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

Abstract

Crystalline materials are often considered to have rigid periodic lattices, while soft materials are associated with flexibility and nonperiodicity. The continuous evolution of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has erased the boundaries between these two distinct conceptions. Flexibility, disorder, and defects have been found to be abundant in MOF materials with imperfect crystallinity, and their intricate interplay is poorly understood because of the limited strategies for characterizing disordered structures. Here, we apply advanced nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to elucidate the mesoscale structures in a defective MOF with a semicrystalline lattice. We show that engineered defects can tune the degree of lattice flexibility by combining both ordered and disordered compartments. The one-dimensional alignment of correlated defects is the key for the reversible topological transition. The unique matrix is featured with both rigid framework of nanoporosity and flexible linkage of high swellability.