Rapid, Room-Temperature and Template-Free Synthesis of Metal-Organic Framework Nanowires in Alcohol

The well-defined one-dimensional nanostructures of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are hard to obtain, especially for the MOF nanowires with small diameters and large lengths. Here we report a rapid, room-temperature and template-free route for the synthesis of MOF nanowires in alcohol. The crystallized MOF nanowires have a diameter of similar to 25 nm and a length of similar to 5 mu m, which are highly active in catalyzing the selective aerobic oxidation of benzylic alcohol under mild conditions. The formation process and mechanism for MOF nanowires were investigated by in-situ Fourier transformed infrared spectra and H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, as well as fluorescence probe techniques. It was found that the alcohol molecules direct the assembly of MOF nanowires by hydrogen bonding with organic ligands.