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 CuCl 2 ·2H 2 O 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 (C 2 H 2 ) 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.