Two Principles of Reticular Chemistry Uncovered in a Metal-Organic Framework of Heterotritopic Linkers and Infinite Secondary Building Units

Structural diversity of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has been largely limited to linkers with at most two different types of coordinating groups. MOFs constructed from linkers with three or more nonidentical coordinating groups have not been explored. Here, we report a robust and porous crystalline MOF, Zn₃(PBSP)₂ or MOF-910, constructed from a novel linker PBSP (phenylyne-1-benzoate, 3-benzosemiquinonate, 5-oxidopyridine) bearing three distinct types of coordinative functionality. The MOF adopts a complex and previously unreported topology termed tto. Our study suggests that simple, symmetric linkers are not a necessity for formation of crystalline extended structures and that new, more complex topologies are attainable with irregular, heterotopic linkers. This work illustrates two principles of reticular chemistry: first, selectivity for helical over straight rod secondary building units (SBUs) is achievable with polyheterotopic linkers, and second, the pitch of the resulting helical SBUs may be fine-tuned based on the metrics of the polyheterotopic linker.