In silico design and screening of hypothetical MOF-74 analogs and their experimental synthesis

Abstract

In this work we present the in silico design of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) exhibiting 1-dimensional rod topologies. We introduce an algorithm for construction of this family of MOF topologies, and illustrate its application for enumerating MOF-74-type analogs. Furthermore, we perform a broad search for new linkers that satisfy the topological requirements of MOF-74 and consider the largest database of known chemical space for organic compounds, the PubChem database. Our in silico crystal assembly, when combined with dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT) calculations, is demonstrated to generate a hypothetical library of open-metal site containing MOF-74 analogs in the 1-D rod topology from which we can simulate the adsorption behavior of CO₂. We finally conclude that these hypothetical structures have synthesizable potential through computational identification and experimental validation of a novel MOF-74 analog, Mg₂(olsalazine).