Pillar-layered MOFs: Functionality, Interpenetration, Flexibility and Applications

Among the top investigations in solid state chemistry, Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) [1] are the class of promising materials that have attracted tremendous amount of attention in the past two decades. Pillar-layered MOFs are one of the most striking branches of MOF materials. Due to great number of reports related to pillar-layered MOFs, investigating their structure diversity, properties and applicability as multi donor porous frameworks is of great interest. Introducing pillar linkers improve dimensionality as well as ability to tune the obtained frameworks. Detailed modification in pillar-layered architecture as a third building block of pillar-layered MOFs, together with metal nodes and oxygen donor linkers can enhance controlling structure assembly, leading to specific properties and can help us to fabricate novel networks with desirable performance, which is an important goal in recent MOF assembly. Controlling flexibility, interpenetration, chemical stability and functionality through changing pillar backbone or simple conversion in the spacer or functions in pillar bridges are attractive issues, which give opportunity to the scientists to design structures with optimal pore volume and efficiency such as good candidates in different areas as selective adsorption, separation, catalysis, sensing and so on [2].