Metal–organic frameworks—prospective industrial applications

The generation of metal–organic framework (MOF) coordination polymers enables the tailoring of novel solids with regular porosity from the micro to nanopore scale. Since the discovery of this new family of nanoporous materials and the concept of so called ‘reticular design’, nowadays several hundred different types of MOF are known. The self assembly of metal ions, which act as coordination centres, linked together with a variety of polyatomic organic bridging ligands, results in tailorable nanoporous host materials as robust solids with high thermal and mechanical stability.