Solvent-Assisted Metal Metathesis: A Highly Efficient and Versatile Route towards Synthetically Demanding Chromium Metal-Organic Frameworks

Chromium(III)-based metal-organic frameworks (Cr-MOFs) are very attractive in a wide range of investigations because of their robustness and high porosity. However, reports on Cr-MOFs are scarce owing to the difficulties in their direct synthesis. Recently developed postsynthetic routes to obtain Cr-MOFs suffered from complicated procedures and a lack of general applicability. Herein, we report a highly efficient and versatile strategy, namely solvent-assisted metal metathesis, to obtain Cr-MOFs from a variety of Fe-III-MOFs, including several well-known MOFs and a newly synthesized one, through judicious selection of a coordinating solvent. The versatility of this strategy was demonstrated by producing Cr-MIL-100, Cr-MIL-142A/C, Cr-PCN-333, and Cr-PCN-600 from their Fe-III analogues and Cr-SXU-1 from a newly synthesized MOF precursor, Fe-SXU-1, in acetone as the solvent under very mild conditions. We have thus developed a general approach for the preparation of robust Cr-MOFs, which are difficult to synthesize by direct methods.