Flexible Zirconium MOF as the Crystalline Sponge for Coordinative Alignment of Dicarboxylates

Because of their permanent porosity and unparalleled structural diversities, flexible metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising and highly desirable in host–guest chemistry. In this work, we employed a flexible Zr-MOF system, namely PCN-700 species, as the crystalline sponge for guest inclusion. A family of linear dicarboxylate ligands was adsorbed in the void space of PCN-700, which were subsequently confirmed by crystallographic observation. The stretching degree of the PCN-700 series was varied by means of dicarboxylate encapsulation through coordinative alignment.