Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry: How Izatt–Christensen Award Winners

Edited by Reed M. Izatt. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Inorganic zeolites [1], mesoporous silica [2], and porous carbon [3] are useful materials because of their permanent porosity imparted by their architectural stability in the absence of guest molecules. The chemical functionalization and structure control of these classes of porous materials have been long‐standing challenges. Indeed, the incorporation of organic functionality and transition metal ions within the structures of these porous materials remain objectives highly sought after. Inorganic and organic molecules when linked into extended structures provide vast opportunities for making porous metal–organic crystals by design and for translating molecular organic and inorganic functionality and reactivity into the solid state. Metal–organic compounds having crystal structures with open space have been known since Werner’s work on coordination complexes [4, 5]. Since that time many different classes of porous molecular crystals and extended solids have been studied, but none of these had been shown to have permanent porosity until metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) were reported in the 1990s [6–11]. This contribution highlights the structures and porous properties of important crystalline molecular complexes and extended structures dating from Werner compounds up to and including MOFs. Porosity in Metal–Organic Compounds