Designed additive suppresses interpenetration in IRMOF-10.

IRMOF-10, derived from biphenyl-4,4'-dicarboxylic acid and zinc, is a prototype for an open cubic structure prone to interpenetration. Interpenetration can compromise MOF pore volume and surface area which drives the need to develop strategies to synthesize non-interpenetrated MOFs. In this work, an additive design strategy was employed to suppress interpenetration of IRMOF-10. The presence of the additive during traditional solvothermal synthesis yielded an activated material with the highest surface area reported to date and enabled the determination of the single crystal structure. In situ monitoring of the nucleation of crystals under polarized light provided insights into the mechanism behind interpenetration in the IRMOF-9/10 system. This work provides a roadmap to suppress interpenetration more generically in other MOFs and achieve improved surface areas and pore volumes for this prominent class of porous sorbents.