Ligand Bent-Angle Engineering for Tuning Topological Structures and Acetylene Purification Performances of Copper-Diisophthalate Frameworks

To enrich structural chemistry and widen the application prospects of MOFs (metal–organic frameworks), the development of a synthetic strategy to realize structural and functional modulation is highly demanded. By implementation of the linker bent-angle engineering strategy, three banana-like diisophthalate linkers with distinct bent angles were designed and synthesized. The inclusion of the targeted linkers into MOFs through solvothermal assembly with CuCl2·2H2O under identical conditions yielded three crystalline solids featuring diversified topological structures as revealed by X-ray crystallographic studies. Furthermore, functional explorations indicated that they are promising solid adsorbents for acetylene (C2H2) purification application with structurally dependent separation potentials. The results reported in this study illustrated a rare example of modulating the topological structures and separation efficiencies of MOFs by engineering the ligand bent angles.