Rapid, Room‐Temperature and Template‐Free Synthesis of Metal‐Organic Framework Nanowires in Alcohol

Abstract The well‐defined one‐dimensional nanostructures of metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) are hard to obtain, especially for the MOF nanowires with small diameters and large lengths. Here we report a rapid, room‐temperature and template‐free route for the synthesis of MOF nanowires in alcohol. The crystallized MOF nanowires have a diameter of ∼25 nm and a length of ∼5 μm, which are highly active in catalyzing the selective aerobic oxidation of benzylic alcohol under mild conditions. The formation process and mechanism for MOF nanowires were investigated by in‐situ Fourier transformed infrared spectra and 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, as well as fluorescence probe techniques. It was found that the alcohol molecules direct the assembly of MOF nanowires by hydrogen bonding with organic ligands.