Size and morphology control of two-dimensional metal-organic frameworks through coordination modulation

Two-dimensional metal-organic frameworks (2D MOFs) have presented application potential in various fields, and their size and morphology are vital to their practical application. And coordination modulation has been proved as an effective strategy to adjust MOF structure to enhance its performance by modulating MOF crystal growth. Herein, a facile method is presented to control the size and morphology of 2D MOF, CuBDC (BDC is 1,4-benzenedicarboxylic), through coordination modulation. With increased modulator 4-n-butylbenzoic acid (NBA) addition, the morphological transformation from nanosheet to nanoflower then to sheet, and the size transformation from smaller nanosheet to larger sheet are achieved by the kinetic trapping of crystal growth at room temperature. Such kinetic trapping products show different size and morphology with intact crystal structure of original CuBDC and low NBA content. Among them, nanoflower products show higher catalytic efficiency and better stability for the catalytic synthesis of benzylidene aniline relative to other products and CuBDC.