Abstract: An exciting advance in materials science is the development of hybrid organic-inorganic solids known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) because their unique properties such as modularity, tunable pore sizes/functionality, high surface areas and permanent porosity. Among numerous applications, MOFs are well-suited for the capture of greenhouse gases (CO2) and the storage of energy carrier gases (H2, CH4).
Solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy is a powerful technique for MOF characterization. It provides nuclide-specific information on structure and dynamics, which is complementary to that obtained from X-ray diffraction.
In this presentation, I will give a brief overview of our recent work on MOF characterization by multinuclear SSNMR spectroscopy. The examples include directly probing the local environment of a variety of metal centers; identifying chemically different species; resolving crystallographically non-equivalent sites in the unit cell; characterizing the defects in the framework; locating the binding sites of gaseous molecules (CO2, CH4, H2) and obtaining dynamic info of guest species adsorbed in the MOF frameworks.