Synthesis of homochiral zeolitic imidazolate frameworks via solvent-assisted linker exchange for enantioselective sensing and separation

Abstract

A pair of homochiral zeolitic imidazolate framework (S(R)-ZIF-78h) materials of GME topology possessing enantiopure benzimidazolate (S(R)-OH-bim) linkers have been synthesized via solvent-assisted linker exchange (SALE) of ZIF-78, which has been confirmed through ¹H NMR, elemental analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, gas adsorption and circular dichroism (CD). Remarkably, the representative S-ZIF-78h material exhibits permanent porosity and enantioselective sensing and separation ability towards proline.