Molecular sieving to take your breath away: The breathing ionic crystal 1 is synthesized by the complexation of Keggin-type [α-SiW12O40]4− (red) polyoxometalate with a macro cation [Cr3O(OOCH)6(H2O)3]+ (green and white). The water of crystallization is easily removed from 1 by evacuation to form a guest-free phase 2. Compound 2 reversibly adsorbs small alcohols and nitriles as well as water, while longer-chain alcohols and nitriles were excluded, which shows the novel molecular sieving of small hydrophilic molecules by 2.
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Uchida et al. (2002) studied this question.