Linker functionalized metal-organic frameworks

Abstract Owing to their three dimensionality and high porosity, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted the attention of scientists especially chemists and material engineers. The frameworks of this subclass of hybrid materials are made of inorganic metal ions/clusters and organic bridging ligands. Special connections between these two building blocks of MOFs lead to a theoretically unlimited number of frameworks. Unlike other porous materials, MOFs benefit from characteristics such as high crystallinity and regularity, high porosity and surface area, hybrid organic-inorganic nature, moderate to high chemical and thermal stability, and decorable pores with different functional groups. Decorating MOFs with functions is possible through functionalization of organic linkers, inorganic building blocks, and void cavities of the framework. Tunability of MOFs with organic linkers is of particular importance due to the unlimited possibility to design functional or multi-functional organic linkers as well as distinctive chemical properties of organic functional groups (OFGs). The purpose of this review is to gain deeper insight into the effects of organic functional groups on structure, host-guest chemistry and applications of functional metal-organic frameworks (FMOFs) in order to be able to synthesize functional MOFs for specific purposes through an in depth analysis of the literature.