Ultrahigh-field 67 Zn NMR reveals short-range disorder in zeolitic imidazolate framework glasses

Glassy metal-organic frameworks The node-and-linker structure of metal-organic frameworks could enable detailed structural studies of molecular glasses quenched from melts. Zinc-based zeolitic imidazole frameworks exhibit a high propensity for glass formation at conventional cooling rates. Madsen et al. used ultrahigh magnetic fields (19.5 and 35.2 tesla) to perform zinc-67 nuclear magnetic resonance of solid samples with magic-angle spinning on three samples with different ratios of imidazole and benzimidazole linkers. The structural disorder of the tetrahedral ligand environment around zinc nodes was higher in the glassy states than in the parent crystals. Science , this issue p. 1473