Facile fabrication of concave cubic nitrogen-rich metal–organic framework nanocrystals for gas uptake

Nitrogen-rich metal–organic framework (N-MOF) nanocrystals with concave surfaces at exposed [100, 001] directions were synthesized via a facile wet-chemical route. The 1-methylimidazole modulator plays an essential role in controlling the morphology and size of cubic N-MOF nanocrystals. Compared with octahedron and cuboctahedron morphologies, the cubic N-MOF shows significantly enhanced gas uptake capability due to having more open metal sites and coordination-free triazole moieties.