Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of crystalline, porous materials, where organic linkers and inorganic units are alternately connected to form frameworks. The flexibility with which these components can be varied has led to an extensive class of MOF structures with high surface areas and high thermal/chemical stability. These characteristics allow the interior of MOFs to be chemically altered for use in gas storage, gas separation, and catalysis, among other applications. The precise control over the assembly of MOFs is expected to propel this field further into new realms of synthetic chemistry in which far more sophisticated materials may be accessed. This seminar will focus on our recent successes in building structures comprised of many different types of building units. This development has yielded materials with heterogeneity imposed within the ordered framework and whose functions are dictated by the specific arrangement of their underlying constituents. Figure: (A) The isoreticular expansion of MOFs by using an expanded version of the parent organic linker. Inside the extraordinary pore size of IRMOF-74-XI are several examples ofcatalytic transformations that have been demonstrated by MOFs. (B) Conceptual illustrationof a multivariate MOF (MTV-MOF). Heterogeneous mixtures of functionalities arrange in specific sequences to decorate the pores of MOF-5. | 