Monodispersed MOF-808 Nanocrystals Synthesized via a Scalable Room-Temperature Approach for Efficient Heterogeneous Peptide Bond Hydrolysis

Zr­(IV)-based
metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) such as the
Zr­(IV) trimesate MOF-808 are promising materials for catalytic applications.
In this work, we report an aqueous solution-based room-temperature
strategy to produce well-defined monodispersed MOF-808 nanocrystals
down to 35 nm with a high space-time yield, up to 2516 kg/m3/day, and excellent crystallinity and porosity. The resulting nanocrystals
show remarkable colloidal dispersion during 1 day in a wide range
of nanoparticle concentrations. As a result, 35 nm MOF-808 colloidal-level
nanocrystals exhibit the highest rate of selective peptide bond and
protein hydrolysis among the reported Zr­(IV)-based MOFs. This result
may open new opportunities for highly efficient peptide or protein
hydrolysis using scalable nanocatalysts.