Playing cage-Tetris to generate switchable porous solids

摘要

MoLecuLar solids based on cage compounds have recently emerged as an attractive class of porous materials,owing to their solution processability and intrinsic porosity.However,the Aristotelian postulate'nature abhors a vacuum'holds true for these materials,in that crystallisation or'cage-Tetris'often leads to crystal packings that do not retain porosity in their solvent-free form.Now,researchers at the University of Adelaide have clarified how solvent determines soLid-state integrity and overall porosity in cage compounds through energy-landscape calculations and adsorption analyses of several solvatomorphic solids of a particular metal-organic cage (Bloch W.M.,Babarao R.,Schneider M.L Chem.Sci.2020,11,3664-71).