Two Metal-Organic Frameworks with Structural Varieties Derived from cis-trans Isomerism Nodes and Effective Detection of Nitroaromatic Explosives.

Two novel porous MOFs, [Zn5(DpImDC)2(DMF)4(H2O)3]·H2O·DMF (JLU-MOF48, H5DpImDC = 2-(3,5-dicarboxyphenyl)-1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid) and [Co5(DpImDC)2(DMF)4(H2O)6]·DMF (JLU-MOF49), have been solvothermally synthesized by using a ligand consisting of a 4,5-imidazoledicarboxylic acid part and an isophthalic acid part. Two compounds have similar structures and connections, but with significant differences in symmetry (monoclinic and orthorhombic) due the cis-trans isomerism in a mononuclear metal node. Moreover, JLU-MOF48 exhibits notable luminescent properties and owns outstanding performance for detecting nitroaromatic explosives, especially for 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (Ksv = 1.0 × 105 M-1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]