A Tale of Copper Coordination Frameworks: Controlled Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Transformations and Their Catalytic C-H Bond Activation Properties

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), as a class of microporous materials with well-defined channels and rich functionalities, hold great promise for various applications. Yet the formation and crystallization processes of various MOFs with distinct topology, connectivity, and properties remain largely unclear, and the control of such processes is rather challenging. Starting from a 0D Cu coordination polyhedron, MOP-1, we successfully unfolded it to give a new 1D-MOF by a single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SCSC) transformation process at room temperature as confirmed by SXRD. We also monitored the continuous transformation states by FTIR and PXRD. Cu MOFs with 2D and 3D networks were also obtained from this 1D-MOF by SCSC transformations. Furthermore, Cu MOFs with 0D, 1D, and 3D networks, MOP-1, 1D-MOF, and HKUST-1, show unique performances in the kinetics of the C-H bond catalytic oxidation reaction.