Main-group and transition-element IRMOF homologues.

A simple two-component procedure was developed to synthesize not only classical zinc-based IRMOFs represented by MOF-5 but also the cobalt and beryllium homologues of this most prominent MOF. The procedure is the first manifestation of mirroring the IRMOF series with other metal centers taken from main-group as well as transition-metal elements. Because of the existence of many suitable precursors, the procedure promises the generation of a large number of IRMOF homologues. Since the IRMOF series together with the MIL series is the MOF group with the largest number of representatives, the possibility of choosing the metal centers of the secondary building units from an extended set will tremendously expand the number of obtainable structures in a predictive, crystal-engineering-type way. Use of metal centers other than zinc will allow the addition of new features to the existing IRMOF structures, such as magnetic properties in the example of cobalt.