CO<sub>2</sub> controls the oriented growth of metal-organic framework with highly accessible active sites.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32188854.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-15200-4 and PMC identifier 7080726.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The production of 2D metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with highly exposed active surfaces is of great importance for catalysis. Here we demonstrate the formation of MOF nanosheets by utilizing CO<sub>2</sub> as a capping agent to control the oriented growth of MOF. This strategy has many advantages over the conventional methods. For example, it is template-free and proceeds at mild temperature (35 °C), CO<sub>2</sub> can be easily removed by depressurization, and the properties of the MOF nanosheets can be well adjusted by changing CO<sub>2</sub> pressure. Such a simple, rapid, efficient and adjustable route produces MOF nanosheets with ultrathin thickness (∼10 nm), small lateral size (∼100 nm) and abundant unsaturated coordination metal sites on surfaces. Owing to these unique features, the as-synthesized MOF nanosheets exhibit superior activity for catalyzing the oxidation reactions of alcohols.