Assembling Metal-Organic Frameworks in Ionic Liquids and Supercritical CO2.

Ionic liquids (ILs) and supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2 ) are both considered to be green solvents with tunable properties. Recently, studies of the synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in the presence of ILs and scCO2 has become a burgeoning direction in chemistry and materials science. ILs have been shown to be ideal media for the synthesis of a variety of MOFs owing to their unique properties including the ability to dissolve a wide range of organic and inorganic compounds and flexible designability. scCO2 has adjustable solvent power and excellent mass-transfer characteristics that offer the opportunity to replace organic solvents for MOF activation, MOF aerogel synthesis, and MOF construction. More interestingly, the simultaneous utilization of IL and scCO2 can combine the advantages of the two liquids, which provides novel routes for the fabrication of MOF structures. This review describes the advances in MOF synthesis in ILs, scCO2 , and IL/scCO2 systems.