High-Throughput Discovery of a Rhombohedral Twelve-Connected Zirconium-Based Metal-Organic Framework with Ordered Terephthalate and Fumarate Linkers

Abstract

We report a metal-organic framework where an ordered array of two linkers with differing length and geometry connect [Zr6(OH)4O4]12+ clusters into a twelve-connected fcu net that is rhombohedrally distorted from cubic symmetry. The ordered binding of equal numbers of terephthalate and fumarate ditopic carboxylate linkers at the trigonal antiprismatic Zr6 core creates close-packed layers of fumarate-connected clusters that are connected along the single remaining threefold axis by terephthalates. This well-defined linker arrangement retains the three-dimensional porosity of the Zr cluster-based UiO family while creating two distinct windows within the channels that define two distinct guest diffusion paths. The ordered material is accessed by a restricted combination of composition and process parameters that were identified by high-throughput synthesis.