Studying Reactions in Metal-Organic Frameworks

The ability to precisely determine molecular structure lies at the heart of chemistry. Often reactions proceed so rapidly that the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a molecule, particularly short-lived intermediates, can be enormously challenging if not impossible using conventional approaches. Single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) has provided the primary methodology for determining molecular structure for many years but is limited by the requirement for a single crystal of a molecular species which is not always possible if a compound is highly reactive, produced in small quantities or simply does not form single crystals. This project will address some of these problems by developing an approach that uses metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as a platform for trapping and supporting metal complexes that are able to undergo subsequent reactions all in the crystalline phase.