Introducing a Cantellation Strategy for the Design of Mesoporous Zeolite-like Metal–Organic Frameworks: Zr-sod-ZMOFs as a Case Study

Herein we report novel mesoporous
zirconium-based metal–organic
frameworks (MOFs) with zeolitic sodalite (sod) topology.
Zr-sod-ZMOF-1 and -2 are constructed
based on a novel cantellation design strategy. Distinctly, organic
linkers are judiciously designed in order to promote the deployment
of the 12-coordinated Zr hexanuclear molecular building block (MBB)
as a tetrahedral secondary building unit, a prerequisite for zeolite-like
nets. The resultant Zr-sod-ZMOFs exhibit
mesopores with a diameter up to ≈43 Å, while the pore
volume of 1.98 cm3·g–1 measured
for Zr-sod-ZMOF-1 is the highest reported experimental
value for zeolite-like MOFs based on MBBs as tetrahedral nodes.