Researchers at the University of South Florida have disclosed a novel approach to unequivocally design functional porous materials based on hierarchical bottom-up assembly utilizing targeted Supermolecular Building Blocks (SBBs). This represents a new pathway for the assembly of pre-determined highly coordinated building blocks based on supermolecules (built from smaller molecular building blocks), as well as an alternate route to construct materials based on multinodal nets using pre-designed multifunctional ligands and metal clusters.
The molecular building block (MBB) approach has recently emerged as a powerful strategy for the design and construction of solid-state materials. This is evidenced by the burgeoning academic and industrial interest in the class of materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), for which desired functionality can be introduced at the molecular level prior to the assembly process. However, the Supermolecular Building Block (SBB) approach goes beyond the MBB approach; as the complexity of building block increases the number of possible networks decreases, leading to a singular designable net/structure (e.g., (3,24)-connected rht net).
The present invention is directed to supramolecular assemblies that are built from particular combinations of building blocks ((e.g., (3,24)-connected). Advantageously, the building blocks described by our inventors, provide a greater potential for the prediction, design, and synthesis of the resultant network topology of the constructed metal-organic, or covalent-organic frameworks. The invention also provides corresponding designed ligands that can be used as monomers in the preparation of SBBs and the triangular MBBs. The disclosed class of organic ligand monomer and organic or metal-organic (i.e., metalloligand) trimer ligand subunits is unique due to their ability to form, simultaneously, supermolecular and molecular building blocks, which themselves can be regarded as a subunit of metal-organic and organic frameworks and assemblies. The dual composition of the disclosed materials and their extra-large cavities offer great potential for their use in areas such as separation, controlled release and/or sequestration of gases (carbon dioxide capture, methane storage, and gas separations), chemosensors and drug delivery.
This technology has wide range of applications in industrial separation/sequestration of gases and in pharmaceutical, fuel (automobile), adsorbent, membrane and chemical industries.
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