Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) are porous crystalline materials where organic imidazolate links connect to transition metals to form a tetrahedral framework. Intriguingly, many different ZIF structures can be created by simply adjusting the link-link interactions. Links that result in two new materials with structures of a scale and complexity rarely seen before have now been designed: huge and complex cages within the pore network contain up to 264 vertices, and are constructed from as many as 7,524 atoms.
- Bo Wang
- Adrien P. Côté
- Omar M. Yaghi