Experimental Approaches for the Synthesis of Low-Valent Metal-Organic Frameworks from Multitopic Phosphine Linkers

Our research aims to explore the synthesis and properties of metal organic frameworks constructed from low-valent metal ions. How to prepare these materials and their characteristics are not widely understood, but they likely hold tremendous opportunities for solid-state catalysis and other applications. Beyond our own work, there have been only a handful of reports on MOFs prepared from low-valent metal ions.

Perhaps the most notable are those by Professor Joshua Figueroa here at UC San Diego who has described MOFs prepared from bulky isocyanate ligands and zero or monovalent metals. Because there are so few descriptions of low-valent MOFs, our protocol is providing a first baseline protocol that works for making these materials. That stated, our protocol is specifically designed for phosphine ligands and may not be readily translatable to different ligand systems such as isocyanates.

Our findings open up opportunities to explore MOF materials with distinct characteristics from most MOFs described to date. For example, we have a new paper in press reporting a solid-state analog of Vaska's complex, which binds oxygen reversibly in a unique manner compared to the few other MOFs that do this. We are interested in opening up new opportunities to make low-valent MOFs, particularly as new solid-state catalysts.

We want to answer questions such as:What other low-valent metal ions can be used to make LV MOFs, and can we mimic the reactivity of low-valent compounds using these solid-state materials?