Metal‐Organic Frameworks: Aluminium‐Based Frameworks

Abstract Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) containing light and environmentally benign metals have attracted researchers from industry and academia since they are believed to be well suited for applications especially in the field of gas storage. Aluminum is one element of choice for the synthesis of such MOFs since it leads to stable and highly porous materials that can also be formed in water as a green solvent. The stability and the small number of Al‐based MOFs stems from the same factors: the high charge (+3) of the metal ion and the small ionic radius. Hence dissolution of these MOFs in water is often kinetically hindered and at the same time they are almost exclusively obtained as microcrystalline products. The latter fact has impeded the structure elucidation and the determination of structure property relationships and hence the intensive investigation of this class of compounds. Recent progress in the synthesis and characterization of Al‐MOFs has demonstrated that certain structural motifs are predominantly observed, depending on the substitution pattern of the polycarboxylate based linker molecules and the solvent employed. Here, the synthesis and structural trends in Al‐based MOFs are summarized.