Molecular Organic Crystals: From Barely Porous to Really Porous

摘要

In 1991, before the avalanche of interest in nanoporous hybrid crystals, such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), Wuest and co-workers reported a diamondoid organic crystal based on the principal of molecular tectonics. The word "tecton" (from the Greek, tecton = builder) refers to a molecule whose interactions are dominated by particular associative forces that induce the self-assembly of an organized network with specific architectural or functional features. Specifically, a tetrahedral molecule, 3, containing four pyr-idone "sticky sites" was found to assemble into a diamondoid crystal, 2, with large internal chambers, broadly according to the authors' design scheme (Scheme 1). Likewise, a related tetradiaminopyrine tecton formed a robust hydrogen-bonded network with exchangeable enclathrated guests which was subsequently desolvated to generate permanent porosity.