Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201204963
Metal–Organic Frameworks
Automated Diffraction Tomography for the Structure Elucidation of
Twinned, Sub-micrometer Crystals of a Highly Porous, Catalytically
Active Bismuth–Metal–Organic Framework**
Mark Feyand, Enrico Mugnaioli, Frederik Vermoortele, Bart Bueken, Johannes M. Dieterich,
Tim Reimer, Ute Kolb,* Dirk de Vos, and Norbert Stock*
[
7]
The number of metal–organic framework (MOF) compounds
has increased almost exponentially over the last decade as
a consequence of their fascinating structures and potential
DFT calculations have been applied. Recently automated
diffraction tomography (ADT) has been introduced as a new
method for collecting three-dimensional electron diffraction
[
1]
[8]
applications. They are composed of inorganic building units,
such as metal ions or clusters, which are connected through
organic linker molecules to form a porous three-dimensional
network. Most of the MOFs are based on rigid polycarbox-
data from single nanosized crystals, thus allowing single-
crystal analysis even for porous and organic sub-microcrystal-
line samples.
A trivalent metal that exhibits interesting catalytic
properties is bismuth. It is nontoxic, noncarcinogenic, and
for a rare metal relatively inexpensive, and thus bismuth
compounds are used as green catalysts. Despite these
characteristics, the number of bismuth-based MOFs is
rather limited and only a few compounds with limited
[
2]
ylate linker molecules, but a large variety of metal ions,
[
2c,3]
mainly transition-metal ions, have also been incorporated.
[9]
The chemical and thermal stability of metal carboxylate based
MOFs is crucial for potential applications and depends on the
[4]
metal ions incorporated. In general, metal ions in higher
oxidation states lead to more stable structures.
[10]
porosity have been described. This is in contrast to the
many known bismuth-oxo clusters, which could possibly be
used for the construction of new MOFs.
While the use of divalent metal ions often results in the
formation of single crystals, whose structures can be routinely
[
11]
[
2c,3c]
determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction,
tri- and
Here, we present the synthesis of the first highly
crystalline, porous, and catalytically active bismuth-based
MOF Bi(BTB) (BTB = 1,3,5-benzenetrisbenzoate), whose
structure was elucidated by a combination of electron
diffraction, Rietveld refinement, and DFT calculations.
Bi(BTB), denoted as CAU-7 (CAU = Christian-
Albrechts-Universitꢀt) was synthesized by using conventional
as well as microwave (MW) assisted heating. The reaction of
Bi(NO ) ·5H O with H BTB in methanol at 1208C led to
tetravalent metal carboxylates are mostly obtained as micro-
crystalline powders and the determination of their structures
[
2a,3a,4c,5]
poses immense challenges.
Direct methods have been
successfully employed, but complicated structures with large
unit cells necessitate the use of nonstandard approaches.
Thus, computational assisted structure determination,
[
4c]
namely, the AASBU approach (assembling of secondary
[
2a,6]
building units), the ligand-replacement strategy,
and
3
3
2
3
phase-pure CAU-7 (for a detailed synthesis procedure see the
Supporting Information). The reaction time can be reduced
from 12 h to 20 min by using MW-assisted instead of conven-
tional heating, but this leads to the formation of 10–20 mm
large agglomerates of strongly intergrown elongated crystals
of about 100 nm (see Figures S2–S4 in the Supporting
Information). The addition of DMF in the conventional
synthesis results in the formation of larger rodlike crystals
ranging from 200 to 300 nm in length. Transmission electron
microscopy confirmed that isolated CAU-7 crystals have
a typical rodlike shape with different length/diameter ratios
(see Figure S5 in the Supporting Information). Such isolated
rods were used to collect electron diffraction data by
automated diffraction tomography (ATD).
[
*] M. Feyand, T. Reimer, Prof. Dr. N. Stock
Institut fꢀr Anorganische Chemie
Christian Albrechts Universitꢁt zu Kiel
Max-Eyth Strasse 2, 24118 Kiel (Germany)
E-mail: stock@ac.uni-kiel.de
Dr. E. Mugnaioli, Dr. U. Kolb
Institut fꢀr Physikalische Chemie
Johannes Gutenberg-Universitꢁt Mainz
Welderweg 11, 55099 Mainz (Germany)
Dr. J. M. Dieterich
Institut fꢀr Physikalische Chemie
Georg-August-Universitꢁt Gçttingen
Tammannstrasse 6, 37077 Gçttingen (Germany)
F. Vermoortele, B. Bueken, Prof. Dr. D. de Vos
Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis
Kasteelpark Arenberg 23, 3001 Heverlee (Belgium)
Single-crystal ADT electron diffraction datasets were
collected using a cryo holder cooled to 120 K and mild
illumination conditions. To prevent beam damage and
improve the signal intensity, the diffraction data were
[
**] We thank Steffen Schmidt (LMU Mꢀnchen) for the SEM micro-
graphs, Michael T. Wharmby for his assistance in preparing the
graphics, and the DFG for financial support (SPP 1362, grant
agreement no. STO 643/5-2). This work has also been supported by
the Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz fꢀr Innovation and the state Schleswig
Holstein.
[
12]
acquired in the precession mode. The three-dimensional
diffraction space reconstruction leads to lattice parameters
a = 32 ꢁ, b = 28 ꢁ, c = 4 ꢁ, a = b = g = 908, and extinction
group Pb-a. The reconstructed reciprocal space is shown in
Figure 1.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 1 – 5
ꢀ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
1
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