Issue 46, 2019

Mechanical properties of metal–organic frameworks

Abstract

As the field of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) continues to grow, the physical stability and mechanical properties of these porous materials has become a topic of great interest. While strategies for synthesizing MOFs with desirable chemical functionalities or pore sizes have been established over the past twenty years, design principles to modulate the response of MOFs to mechanical stress are still underdeveloped. The inherent porosity of these frameworks results in many interesting and sometimes unexpected phenomena upon exposure to elevated pressures and other physical stimuli. Beyond its fundamental importance, an understanding of mechanical properties (e.g. bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young's modulus, linear compressibility, and Poisson's ratio) plays an essential role in the post-synthetic processing of MOFs, which has implications in the successful transition of these materials from academic interest to industrial relevance. This perspective provides a concise overview of the efforts to understand the mechanical properties of MOFs through experimental and computational methods. Additionally, current limitations and possible future directions for the field are also discussed briefly.

Graphical abstract: Mechanical properties of metal–organic frameworks

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
23 Aug. 2019
Accepted
17 Okt. 2019
First published
17 Okt. 2019
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 10666-10679

Mechanical properties of metal–organic frameworks

L. R. Redfern and O. K. Farha, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 10666 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC04249K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements