Dynamic and transformable Cu₁₂ cluster-based C-H-stacked porous supramolecular frameworks

The assembly of cluster-based pi-stacked porous supramolecular frameworks presents daunting challenges, including the design of suitable cluster building units, control of the sufficient C-Hpi interactions, trade-off between structural dynamics and stability as well as understanding the resulting collective properties. Herein, we report a cluster-based C-Hpi interaction-stacked porous supramolecular framework, namely, Cu(12)a-pi, consisting of Cu-12 nanocluster as a 6-connected node, which is further propagated to a dynamic porous supramolecular frameworks via dense intralayer C-Hpi interactions, yielding permanent porosity. In addition, Cu(12)a-pi can be transformed into cluster-based nonporous adaptive crystals (Cu12b-NACs) via ligand-exchange following a dissociation-reassembly mechanism. Moreover, Cu12a-pi can efficiently remove 97.2% of iodine from saturated iodine aqueous solutions with a high uptake capacity of 2.96 gg(-1). These prospective results positioned at cluster-based porous supramolecular framework and enlighten follow-up researchers to design and synthesize such materials with better performance.