CHAPTER 20. Cavity Effects in Metal–Organic Frameworks

Abstract

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted enormous interest in recent years owing to their potential use as heterogeneous catalysts. MOF catalysts can be designed with active sites at the metallic units or at the organic ligands or trapped inside their regular pore system. This chapter illustrates how cavity effects (i.e. the chemical environment in which the active sites are located) can have a large influence on their final catalytic properties through specific host–guest interactions, thereby introducing additional tools to modulate chemical specificity.