Water-Etched Approach to Hierarchically Porous Metal-Organic Frameworks with High Stability.

The development of hierarchically porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with high stability is desirable to expand their applications but remains challenging. Herein, an anionic sodalite-type microporous MOF ( Yb-TTCA ; TTCA 3- = triphenylene-2,6,10-tricarboxylate) was synthesized, which shows outstanding catalytic activities for the cycloaddition of CO 2 into cyclic carbonates. Moreover, the microporous Yb-TTCA can be transformed into a hierarchical micro- and mesoporous Yb-TTCA by water treatment with the mesopore sizes of 2 to 12 nm. The hierarchically porous Yb-TTCA (HP- Yb-TTCA ) not only exhibits a high thermal stability up to 500 °C but also shows a high chemical stability in aqueous solutions with pH values ranging from 2 to 12. In addition, the HP- Yb-TTCA displays enhanced performance for the removal of organic dyes in comparison with microporous Yb-TTCA . This work provides a facile way to construct hierarchically porous MOF materials.