Nickel versus copper: Which metal controls the crystal morphology?

The size of the crystals decides the various physical and chemical properties of the bulk material.¹ In recent years, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as an important class of porous materials² for gas separation, catalysis and energy storage. These potential applications are often directly related to the morphology of these crystals. Therefore, design and synthesis of specific frameworks with controlled size and shape are very important in advancing the chemistry of these materials. ^3,4

In our study, we observed that the morphology of MOFs can be varied by changing the ratio of two metals - namely copper and nickel - while keeping the molecular packing nearly identical. The crystal growth for these metals is different because of their different reactivity with the organic ligand. This strategy could also be used for generating uniform crystals with different dimensions.

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2. Zhou, H.-C.; Long, J. R.; Yaghi, O. M. Chem. Rev., 2012, 112, 673.
3. di Gregorio, M. C.; Ranjan, P.; Houben, L.; Shimon, L. J. W.; Rechav, K.; Lahav, M.; van der Boom, M. E., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 9139.
4. Shankar, S.; Balgley, R.; Lahav, M.; Cohen, S. R.; Popovitz-Biro, R.; van der Boom, M. E. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 231.