Molecular sponges: is there any limit to the spectacular catalytic and storage abilities of MOFs?(Materials science)(metalorganic frameworks)

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A major milestone in the development of any young scientific discipline is its first international conference and this has just occurred for metalorganic frameworks (MOFs). Taking place in Augsburg, Germany, at the beginning of October, MOF08 brought together over 300 scientists from around the world to discuss this burgeoning discipline, which is already causing them to reach for the superlatives.

'The domain is currently exploding and there are so many potential applications that it is difficult to decide how to prioritise them,' says Gerard Ferey, a professor of chemistry at the University of Versailles's Lavoisier Institute near Paris and chairman of the organising committee for MOF08. 'The only limit is our imagination.'

'This is the fastest growing area in chemistry and one of the most cited,' says Omar Yaghi, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a member of the team that synthesised the first MOF back in 1999.

The excitement is caused both by the ease with which enormous populations of MOFs can be synthesised and their wide range of potential applications, from gas storage to catalysis to drug delivery and more.

MOFs are three-dimensional, crystalline substances in which metal-based molecules (usually metal oxides), acting as 'joints', are linked together by long, rigid organic group 'struts'. This produces a regular structure that resembles scaffolding, with huge pores that provide MOFs with an enormous surface area. Despite their highly ordered structure, however, they can be produced by simply mixing together solutions of metal oxide molecules and organic groups.

The secret is to set up the reaction conditions so that the two types of molecules can only join in one set way. As such, the precise …