Unlocking porosity: structural tuning of urea-based MOFs reaction parameter control.

In the synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), efforts to increase the pore sizes by elongating linkers often result in interpenetration, a challenge that is exacerbated when functional groups are added. Urea groups and their derivatives play an important role in supramolecular chemistry by providing directional hydrogen bonding donor sites and are often considered "privileged groups". Incorporating these moieties into MOFs allows for their spatial separation, a critical approach to enhancing their functional activity, simultaneously preventing interpenetration, and enlarging the pore size.