Extending Rectangular Metal–Organic Frameworks to the Third Dimension: Discrete Organometallic Boxes for Reversible Trapping of Halocarbons Occurring with Conservation of the Lattice

Gone up in frames: Organometallic “molecular splints” with half-sandwich Ir and Rh corners are synthesized, characterized, and studied for reversible trapping of halocarbons. Complex 1 (M=Ir, Rh) selectively recognizes CH2Cl2 and ClCH2CH2Cl molecules with retention of crystallinity. These complexes undergo reversible single-crystal to single-crystal structural transformations that are induced by solvent exchange.