Improving the performance of a poorly adsorbing porous material: template mediated addition of microporosity to a crystalline submicroporous MOF.

The presence of butanoic acid excess in the reaction media employed for the synthesis of a MOF with formula [Cu(2)(μ(3)-ade)(2)(μ(2)-OOC(CH(2))(2)CH(3))(2)](n) (ade: adeninate) leads to the formation of micelles that exert a template effect and provide a pronounced increase of its microporosity, doubling the intrinsic adsorption capacity of the pristine crystal network. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012