Porous Colloidal Hydrogels Formed by Coordination‐Driven Self‐Assembly of Charged Metal‐Organic Polyhedra

Introduction of porosity into supramolecular gels endows soft materials with functionalities for molecular encapsulation, release, separation and conversion. Metal-organic polyhedra (MOPs), discrete coordination cages containing an internal cavity, have recently been employed as building blocks to construct polymeric gel networks potential porosity. However, most the can only be synthesized in organic solvents, examples porous, MOP-based hydrogels are scarce. Here, we demonstrate fabrication porous based on [Rh2(OH-bdc)2]12, a rhodium-based MOP hydroxyl groups its periphery (OH-bdc=5-hydroxy-1,3-benzenedicarboxylate). By simply deprotonating [Rh2(OH-bdc)2]12 base NaOH, polymerization between MOPs linkers induced aqueous solution, leading kinetically controllable formation hierarchical colloidal networks. When heating deprotonated MOP, Nax[Rh24(O-bdc)x(OH-bdc)24-x], induce gelation, was found partially decompose, affecting mechanical property resulting gels. applying post-synthetic deprotonation strategy, show that degree altered after without serious decomposition MOPs. Gas sorption measurements confirmed permanent corresponding aerogels obtained from these hydrogels, showing potentials applications gas catalysis.