Scientists create tunable metal-organic frameworks with up to sixteen incorporated metals
Researchers from the universities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Limerick have developed a new family of adaptable materials whose properties can be adjusted by altering their metallic composition.
New programmable porous structures emerge
Chemists connected metal atoms with organic molecules to build highly ordered structures containing tiny pores. This team published their findings in the journal Angewandte Chemie after demonstrating that shifting metal proportions changes magnetism and gas uptake. The resulting materials allow scientists to select specific combinations for optical or chemical behaviors without inventing entirely new compounds each time.
Record number of metals used
The group successfully incorporated sixteen different metals into a single crystal structure, which represents the highest count achieved so far in this field. Neil Champness from the University of Birmingham noted that these results confirm a path toward creating programmable porous materials with precise control. Predicting how strongly specific metals integrate offers finer management over future multimetal substances for applications like sensing or storage.
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