SESSION 2: ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES AND DERIVED FUNCTIONS OF MOFS

Deviating from the “Perfect” Crystal Structure: Linker Disorder and Dynamics

Delft University of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Delft, The Netherlands

Keywords: disorder, dynamics, structure

It may be tempting to think of the structure of many crystalline materials as perfectly crystalline and static. This is far from the truth. There is growing evidence that long-range disorder and defects are fairly common in metal-organic frameworks, and affect the materials’ functionalities.^[1] In addition, these frameworks are highly dynamic. Rotational dynamics of linkers for example are very prevalent, and should be taken into account in modelling of many of the materials’ properties.^[2] Determining the disorder and dynamics, however, is all but trivial. A combined experimental and theoretical approach can greatly aid here, as I’ll show with a few examples. The talk will focus on disorder in linker organisation, rotational dynamics of linkers and the piezoelectric response of examples from the ZIF and MIL-53 family.

[1] T.D. Bennett, A.K. Cheetham, A.H. Fuchs, F.-X. Coudert, Nature Chem. 9, 11, 2017
[2] A.G. Nelson, F.-X. Coudert, M.A. van der Veen, Nanomaterials 9, 330, 2019