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Interpenetration (catenation) has long been considered a major impediment in the achievement of stable and porous crystalline structures. A strategy for the design of highly porous and structurally stable networks makes use of metal-organic building blocks that can be assembled on a triply periodic P -minimal geometric surface to produce structures that are interpenetrating—more accurately considered as interwoven. We used 4,4′,4"-benzene-1,3,5-triyl-tribenzoic acid (H 3 BTB), copper(II) nitrate, and N , N ′-dimethylformamide (DMF) to prepare Cu 3 (BTB) 2 (H 2 O) 3 ·(DMF) 9 (H 2 O) 2 (MOF-14), whose structure reveals a pair of interwoven metal-organic frameworks that are mutually reinforced. The structure contains remarkably large pores, 16.4 angstroms in diameter, in which voluminous amounts of gases and organic solvents can be reversibly sorbed.
Chen et al. (2001) studied this question.