Metal-organic framework materials as chemical sensors.

1. INTRODUCTION Among the classes of highly porous materials, metalÀorganic frameworks (MOFs) are unparalleled in their degree of tunability and structural diversity as well as their range of chemical and physical properties. MOFs are extended crystalline structures wherein metal cations or clusters of cations (" nodes ") are connected by multitopic organic " strut " or " linker " ions or molecules. The variety of metal ions, organic linkers, and structural motifs affords an essentially infinite number of possible combinations. 1 Furthermore, the possibility for postsynthetic modification adds an additional dimension to the synthetic variability. 2 Coupled with the growing library of experimentally determined structures, the potential to computationally predict, with good accuracy, affinities of guests for host frameworks points to the prospect of routinely predesigning frameworks to deliver desired properties. 3,4 MOFs are often compared to zeolites for their large internal surface areas, extensive porosity, and high degree of crystallinity. Correspondingly, MOFs and zeolites have been utilized for many of the same applications