Post-Synthetic Anisotropic Wet-Chemical Etching of Colloidal Sodalite ZIF Crystals.

ABSTRACT: Controlling the shape of metal-organic framework (MOF) crystals is important for understanding their crystallization and useful for myriad applications. However, despite the many advances in shaping of inorganic nanoparticles, post-synthetic shape control of MOFs and, in general, molecular crystals remains embryonic. Herein, we report using a simple wet-chemistry process at room temperature to control the anisotropic etching of colloidal ZIF-8 and ZIF-67 crystals. Our work enables uniform reshaping of these porous materials into unprecedented morphologies, including cubic and tetrahedral crystals, and even hollow boxes, by an acid-base reaction and subsequent sequestration of leached metal ions. Etching tests on these ZIFs reveal that etching occurs preferentially in the crystallographic d

SUBMITTER: Avci C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5134325 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature