UiO-66-NHC(S)NHMe/Three-Dimensional Macroporous Carbon for Removal and Electrochemical Detection of Cd ²⁺, Pb ²⁺, Cu ²⁺, and Hg ²⁺

A scalable, reproducible method of synthesizing UiO-66- and UiO-67-type MOFs, entailing the addition of HCl to the reaction mixture, has been investigated. The new protocol requires a fraction of the time of previously reported procedures, yields exceptional porosities, and works with a range of linkers.

Discoveries of novel functional materials have played very important roles to the development of science and technologies and thus to benefit our daily life. Among the diverse materials, metal-organic framework (MOF) materials are rapidly emerging as a unique type of porous and organic/inorganic hybrid materials which can be simply self-assembled from their corresponding inorganic metal ions/clusters with organic linkers, and can be straightforwardly characterized by various analytical methods. In terms of porosity, they are superior to other well-known porous materials such as zeolites and carbon materials; exhibiting extremely high porosity with surface area up to 7000 m(2)/g, tunable pore sizes, and metrics through the interplay of both organic and inorganic components with the pore sizes ranging from 3 to 100 Å, and lowest framework density down to 0.13 g/cm(3). Such unique features have enabled metal-organic frameworks to exhibit great potentials for a broad range of applications in gas storage, gas separations, enantioselective separations, heterogeneous catalysis, chemical sensing and drug delivery. On the other hand, metal-organic frameworks can be also considered as organic/inorganic self-assembled hybrid materials, we can take advantages of the physical and chemical properties of both organic and inorganic components to develop their functional optical, photonic, and magnetic materials. Furthermore, the pores within MOFs can also be utilized to encapsulate a large number of different species of diverse functions, so a variety of functional MOF/composite materials can be readily synthesized. In this Account, we describe our recent research progress on pore and function engineering to develop functional MOF materials. We have been able to tune and optimize pore spaces, immobilize specific functional groups, and introduce chiral pore environments to target MOF materials for methane storage, light hydrocarbon separations, enantioselective recognitions, carbon dioxide capture, and separations. The intrinsic optical and photonic properties of metal ions and organic ligands, and guest molecules and/or ions can be collaboratively assembled and/or encapsulated into their frameworks, so we have realized a series of novel MOF materials as ratiometric luminescent thermometers, O2 sensors, white-light-emitting materials, nonlinear optical materials, two-photon pumped lasing materials, and two-photon responsive materials for 3D patterning and data storage. Thanks to the interplay of the dual functionalities of metal-organic frameworks (the inherent porosity, and the intrinsic physical and chemical properties of inorganic and organic building blocks and encapsulated guest species), our research efforts have led to the development of functional MOF materials beyond our initial imaginations.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of crystallized porous polymeric materials consisting of metal ions or clusters linked together by organic bridging ligands. Due to their permanent porosity, rich surface chemistry and tuneable pore sizes, MOFs have emerged as one type of important porous solid and have attracted intensive interests in catalysis, gas adsorption, separation and storage over the past two decades. When compared with pure MOFs, the combination of MOFs with functional species or matrix materials not only shows enhanced properties, but also broadens the applications of MOFs in new fields, such as bio-imaging, drug delivery and electrical catalysis, owing to the interactions of the functional species/matrix with the MOF structures. Although the synthesis, chemical modification and potential applications of MOFs have been reviewed previously, there is an increasing awareness on the synthesis and applications of their composites, which have rarely been reviewed. This review aims to fill this gap and discuss the fabrication, properties, and applications of MOF composites. The remaining challenges and future opportunities in this field, in terms of processing techniques, maximizing composite properties, and prospects for applications, have also been indicated.