A multifunctional 3D chiral porous ferroelectric metal-organic framework for sensing small organic molecules and dye uptake.

A flexible aromatic multicarboxylate ligand and Cd(II) ions assemble into a chiral multihelical porous metal-organic framework with second-order nonlinear optical and ferroelectric properties. The obtained guest-free form highly selectively senses small organic molecules and adsorbs large dye molecules.