Rare-earth cation effects on three-dimensional metal-organic rotaxane framework (MORF) self assembly

A set of metal-organic rotaxane frameworks (MORFs) are constructed with the use of a tetraimidazolium macrocycle, the terephthalate dianion, and the trivalent lanthanide metal cations Nd(III), Sm(III), Eu(III) or Tb(III) and are reported herein. The specific choice of the metal cation allows for control of the structure and luminescent properties of the resulting molecular frameworks.