A recyclable metal–organic framework for ammonia vapour adsorption

Herein, we present a new strategy to design metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as adsorbents for ammonia (NH₃) vapour. The linking ligand is functionalized with a sterically hindered Lewis acidic boron (B) centre, allowing efficient capture of NH₃ and easy recycling of the MOF by simply heating at low temperature. The recycled MOF material can be used for NH₃ capture for at least 5 cycles without losing its crystallinity or its luminescence properties.