Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks

In the past two decades, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) or porous coordination polymers (PCPs) assembled from metal ions or clusters and organic linkers via metal-ligand coordination bonds have captivated significant scientific interest on account of their high crystallinity, exceptional porosity, and tunable pore size, high modularity, and diverse functionality. The opportunity to achieve functional porous materials by design with promising properties, unattainable for solid-state materials in general, distinguishes MOFs from other classes of materials, in particular, traditional porous materials such as activated carbon, silica, and zeolites, thereby leading to complementary properties. Scientists have conducted intense research in the production of chiral MOF (CMOF) materials for specific applications including but not limited to chiral recognition, separation, and catalysis since the discovery of the first functional CMOF (i.e., d- or l-POST-1). At present, CMOFs have become interdisciplinary between chirality chemistry, coordination chemistry, and material chemistry, which involve in many subjects including chemistry, physics, optics, medicine, pharmacology, biology, crystal engineering, environmental science, etc. In this review, we will systematically summarize the recent progress of CMOFs regarding design strategies, synthetic approaches, and cutting-edge applications. In particular, we will highlight the successful implementation of CMOFs in asymmetric catalysis, enantioselective separation, enantioselective recognition, and sensing. We envision that this review will provide readers a good understanding of CMOF chemistry and, more importantly, facilitate research endeavors for the rational design of multifunctional CMOFs and their industrial implementation.

Toward Efficient Synthesis of Porous All-Carbon-Based Nanocomposites for Enantiospecific Separation

Chiral separation and asymmetric synthesis and catalysis are crucial processes for obtaining enantiopure compounds, which are especially important in the pharmaceutical industry. The efficiency of the separation processes is readily increased by using porous materials as the active material can interact with a larger surface area. Silica, metal-organic frameworks, or chiral polymers are versatile porous materials that are established in chiral applications, but their instability under certain conditions in some cases requires the use of more stable porous materials such as carbons. In addition to their stability, porous carbon materials can be tailored for their ability to adsorb and catalytically activate different chemical compounds from the liquid and the gas phase. The difficulties imposed by the functionalization of carbons with chiral species were tackled in the past by carbonizing chiral ionic liquids (CILs) together with a template to create pores, which results in the entire body of a material that is built up from the precursor. To increase the atomic efficiency of ionic liquids for better economic utilization of CILs, the approach presented here is based on the formation of a composite between CIL-derived chiral carbon and a pristine carbon material obtained from carbohydrate precursors. Two novel enantioselective carbon composite materials are applied for the chiral recognition of molecules in the gas phase, as well as in solution. The enantiomeric ratio of the l-composite for phenylalanine from the solution was (L/D) = 8.4, and for 2-butanol from the gas phase, it was (S/R) = 1.3. The d-composite showed an opposite behavior, where the enantiomeric ratio for phenylalanine was (D/L) = 2.7, and for 2-butanol from the gas phase, it was (R/S) = 1.3.

Asymmetric metal–organic frameworks with double helices for enantioselective recognition

A pair of homochiral metal–organic frameworks are elaborated by employing flexible enantiopure ligands.

An anionic sod-type terbium-MOF with extra-large cavities for effective anthocyanin extraction and methyl viologen detection

An anionic sod-type zeolitic metal-organic framework [(CH3)2NH2]9{Tb6(η6-TATAT)4(H2O)12}·3Cl·DMA·7H2O [1, H6TATAT = 5,5',5''-(1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triyltriimino)tri-1,3-benzenedicarboxylic acid] has been synthesized by metal-ligand directed assembly of hexacarboxylic acid units and Tb3+ ions. Compound 1 with extra-large cavities can efficiently extract natural product anthocyanins from blackberries and release them rapidly into NaCl aqueous solution. And, the nature of the anionic framework makes it very sensitive to detect cationic methyl viologen (MV2+) with a detection limit as low as 1 × 10-8 M.

Three novel Co(ii)/Ni(ii)-based coordination polymers as efficient heterogeneous catalysts for dye degradation

Three novel Co(ii)/Ni(ii)-based coordination polymers have been synthesized and characterized. Compound 2 shows a rare 2D + 2D heterogeneous framework. Compound 3 is a chiral 0-D molecular complex driven by the solvent-assisted homochiral helix. The photocatalytic oxidation activities and mechanism have been studied.