Metal-adeninate vertices for the construction of an exceptionally porous metal-organic framework

Abstract

Metal-organic frameworks comprising metal-carboxylate cluster vertices and long, branched organic linkers are the most porous materials known, and therefore have attracted tremendous attention for many applications, including gas storage, separations, catalysis and drug delivery. To increase metal-organic framework porosity, the size and complexity of linkers has increased. Here we present a promising alternative strategy for constructing mesoporous metal-organic frameworks that addresses the size of the vertex rather than the length of the organic linker. This approach uses large metal-biomolecule clusters, in particular zinc-adeninate building units, as vertices to construct bio-MOF-100, an exclusively mesoporous metal-organic framework. Bio-MOF-100 exhibits a high surface area (4,300 m² g⁻¹), one of the lowest crystal densities (0.302 g cm⁻³) and the largest metal-organic framework pore volume reported to date (4.3 cm³ g⁻¹).