Metal‐Organic Frameworks: Synthesis, Structures, and Applications

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), also known as porous coordination polymers (PCPs), are an emerging class of porous materials. Due to their structural and functional tunability as well as the diversity and rich applications, the field of MOFs has become one of the fastest-growing fields in not only chemistry but also materials science. With the maturation of the synthetic methodologies, structure characterization techniques and functionality modifications, MOF research has been in a new era, with great efforts dedicated to their applications in various directions, even on devices. Here, we are greatly honored to assemble a compendium of the latest works on MOF synthesis, structures, and applications. The special issue includes contributions from fourteen groups whose research ranges from the design, synthesis, and structure characterizations of MOFs and MOF-based materials, including MOF composites and MOF-derived materials, to their applications in various directions. Seven review articles present overviews of MOF-based materials, including flexible MOFs, conductive 2D conjugated MOF thin films, MOFs with vacancies, MOFs modified by post-synthesis, and MOFs constructed from iron-series elements, for applications towards carbon capture, (opto-)electronics, electrochemical energy storage and conversion, photocatalysis and CO2 reduction. Seven research articles report new research results on the novel electrically conductive MOFs with luminescence and redox activity, efficient separation of propylene from propane in an ultramicroporous cyanide-based compound with open metal sites, copper iodide cluster-based metal-organic polyhedra for photocatalytic click chemistry, MOF-derived electrocatalysts for selective oxidation of small organic molecules as anodic reaction to boost CO2 electrolysis, MOF-derived plasmonic catalysts for photoelectrochemical water splitting, bilanthanide MOFs for instant detection of 17β-estradiol, and structural manipulation of a zirconocene-based porous coordination cage using external and host-guest stimuli. We hope that this special issue will provide the readers representative and exciting views regarding the new development of synthesis, structures and applications of MOFs and MOF-based materials. Due to the dynamic nature of this rapidly growing field, it is impossible to cover all main aspects of this field, especially those recent achievements by research groups not involved in the preparation of this special issue. There is no doubt that the research field of MOFs will continue to expand, with contributions from not only chemists, but also materials scientists and engineers. We do hope that readers will enjoy the scope of topics presented here and perhaps find inspiration to push this field to the next stage. Susumu Kitagawa received his Ph.D. in 1979 from Kyoto University. After Kitagawa served as Associate Professor at Kindai University and Professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, he has been Professor at Kyoto University from 1998 to 2016. He has been Director of iCeMS since 2013, and Distinguished Professor at KUIAS since 2017. Kitagawa developed "porous" materials with numerous nano-sized holes. These materials are expected to be used to develop new materials to absorb carbon dioxide causing global warming and for medical applications. He was selected as a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate in 2010 and Thomson Reuters / Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in 2014 – 2021. He received the Medal with Purple Ribbon (The Japanese Government) in 2011, the Japan Academy Prize in 2016, the Chemistry for the Future Solvay Prize in 2017, the Grand Prix of the Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie, France in 2018. He was elected as a member of the Japan Academy in 2019. Stefan Kaskel received his Ph.D. degree in 1997 from Tübingen University in solid state chemistry, under the guidance of Prof. J. Strähle. As a Feodor-Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation he worked with J. Corbett at Ames Laboratory, USA (1998-2000) on intermetallic compounds. He was a group leader at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr (2000-2004) in the group of F. Schüth and completed his habilitation at Ruhr University Bochum under the guidance of R. A. Fischer in 2004 in the area of heterogeneous catalysis. In 2004 he became full professor for Inorganic Chemistry at Technical University Dresden. Since 2008 he is also working part time for Fraunhofer IWS, Dresden as a business field manager Chemical Surface and Reaction Technology. His research interests are focused on porous and nanostructured materials (synthesis, structure, function) for applications in energy storage, catalysis, batteries and separation technologies. He has been working on MOFs and porous carbon materials, CVD, CNTs, adsorption, and printing. He received the nanotechnology award of the German Ministry of Science and Education in 2002, the JSPS award from Japan in 2016 and the Henriette Herz Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2021. Stefan Kaskel has authored more than 600 publications with > 43000 citations (google scholar h-index 111) and has contributed as inventor to more than 60 patent applications. In 2016-2021 he was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Analytics. Qiang Xu received his Ph.D. in 1994 from Osaka University. He worked as Director of AIST-Kyoto University ChEM-OIL, and is currently Chair Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and Director of Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano-Porous Functional Materials (SKLPM). His research interests include the chemistry of nanostructured materials and their applications, especially for catalysis and energy. He is on a number of editorial/advisory boards of journals, including EnergyChem (Editor-in-Chief), Coordination Chemistry Reviews (Associate Editor), Chem, Matter, Small Structures, Advanced Sustainable Systems, Chemistry-An Asian Journal and ChemNanoMat. He received Thomson Reuters Research Front Award in 2012 and Humboldt Research Award in 2019 and was recognized a highly cited researcher (2014-2021) by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics. He is Fellow of the Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ), European Academy of Sciences (EURASC), and National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).