Click chemistry as a versatile reaction for construction and modification of metal-organic frameworks

Intriguing porous architectures, fascinating physical and chemical properties, and wide application potentials have made metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) a class of highly promising functional materials. The inherent feature of incorporating decorative organic components as building blocks has facilitated MOF constructions by ingenious pre-design and post-synthetic modifications of the organic moieties through appropriate reactions. Meanwhile, the click chemistry has become an effective and robust tool in the fabrication and modification of various functional materials. The azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition is usually conducted in mild conditions using diversely available substrates to generate 1,4-regioisomers of 1,2,3-triazoles as sole products in high yields, which meets the characteristics of the conceptual click chemistry and has been referred as the premier example of a click reaction. In 2007, the azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition as a representative reaction of the click chemistry was introduced into the field of MOFs. In the past decade, utilizing the azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, not only lots of organic ligands have been designed and synthesized for MOF constructions, but also diverse functional groups have been grafted into/onto MOF networks for targeted applications. Although other click reactions, such as Diels-Alder click reaction and thiol-ene click reaction, have also been introduced into the MOF field, more and more successful examples have undoubtedly demonstrated that the azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition is a highly efficient click reaction in the MOF construction and modification toward purposed applications. Herein, we highlight representative research progresses on MOFs derived from the azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition along with their attractive applications. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.