Neutral N-donor ligand based flexible metal-organic frameworks

Abstract

This short review gives a focussed discussion on metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) made of neutral N-donor ligands which show structural flexibility under various exogenous stimuli. Chemical stimuli such as presence of anions, free guests, coordinated guests and physical stimuli (light, heat and so on) render structural flexibility in MOFs. Single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation studies have attracted a lot of attention for the understanding of such flexible MOF materials. Such a dynamic structural behavior with proper host–guest interactions gives very interesting functions such as chemical separation, sensing and magnetic properties and so on.