Enhanced structural support of metal sites as nodes in metalorganic frameworks compared to metal complexes

Metal-organic frameworks are a new class of crystalline, porous solid-state materials with metal ions periodically linked by organic linkers. This gives rise to one-, two- or three-dimensional structures. Here, we compare the stability of similar metal sites toward external ligand (solvent) induced disruption of the coordination environment in metal complexes and in metal-organic frameworks. Our experimental results show that a metal site as node of a metal-organic framework retains much higher stability compared to a similar metal site in a metal complex.