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Metal-Organic Frameworks
Chemistry In Pictures
Chemistry in Pictures: Metal-organic flowers
by Manny I. Fox Morone
December 28, 2023
Muhammad Abbas found these stunning flower-like crystals when he looked at a sample of a terbium metal-organic framework (MOF) under a microscope. For new MOFs, like the one Abbas synthesized here, a typical first step involves growing high-quality crystals, key to solving their structure using X-ray diffraction analysis. Typically, these crystals grow in regular polyhedral shapes, such as cubes or dodecahedrons, but sometimes a few crystals may show irregular morphologies. However, it’s rare to see almost a whole batch of crystals grow in structures so similar and attractive as these flowers, each about 5 mm across. Abbas is exploring rare-earth MOFs for environmental applications. The goal for this project is to develop MOFs that can fluoresce when they detect pollutants in water.
Submitted by Muhammad Abbas. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @MAbbas003.
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