Assembly of Colloidal Clusters Driven by the Polyhedral Shape of Metal-Organic Framework Particles

Control of the assembly of colloidal particles into discrete or higher-dimensional architectures is important for the design of myriad materials, including plasmonic sensing systems and photonic crystals. Here, we report a new approach that uses the polyhedral shape of metal-organic-framework (MOF) particles to direct the assembly of colloidal clusters. This approach is based on controlling the attachment of a single spherical polystyrene particle on each face of a polyhedral particle via colloidal fusion synthesis, so that the polyhedral shape defines the final coordination number, which is equal to the number of faces, and geometry of the assembled colloidal cluster. As a proof of concept, we assembled six-coordinated (6-c) octahedral and 8-c cubic clusters using cubic ZIF-8 and octahedral UiO-66 core particles. Moreover, we extended this approach to synthesize a highly coordinated 12-c cuboctahedral cluster from a rhombic dodecahedral ZIF-8 particle. We anticipate that the synthesized colloidal clusters could be further evolved into spherical core-shell MOF@polystyrene particles under conditions that promote a higher fusion degree, thus expanding the methods available for the synthesis of MOF-polymer composites.

Automated summary

A new approach was reported to direct the assembly of colloidal clusters using the polyhedral shape of metal-organic-framework particles. By controlling the attachment of a single spherical polystyrene particle on each face of a polyhedral particle, the polyhedral shape defined the final coordination number and geometry of the assembled colloidal cluster. This approach successfully assembled six-coordinated octahedral, eight-coordinated cubic, and highly coordinated cuboctahedral clusters.