0900 - 0940 Susumu Kitagawa

Coordination Polymers with Integrated Functional Pores 

The recent advent of porous coordination polymers (PCPs) or Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as new functional microporous materials, have attracted the attention of chemists and physicists due to not only scientific but also applicationinterest in the creation of unprecedented regular nano-sized spaces and in the finding of novel phenomena. 1-8  In the pores of PCPs, the walls, composed of atoms, molecules and portioned spaces, have very strong effects on the orientation, correlation and assembled structure of guest molecules. 

We can therefore control the state of the guest molecules by changing the size, shape and material of the walls. We have developed PCPs by exploiting the advantages of CPs: (1) structural designability, (2) regularity and (3) flexibility. 6  The pores of PCPs can exhibit a versatile array of functions, these pore functions include storage, exchange, separation, and catalysis. To date PCPs are found in fledgling, 'Phase 1' developments, in which pore functions are explored individually, as in Figure 3. The next challenge is to create novel porous materials in which several of the above-mentioned pore functions are integrated into the same material and in which the pore function can be changed in response to the surrounding environment. For this purpose we need to develop the science, and in particular the chemistry, to better understand the relationship between the structure and function of porous materials, and thus open up the era of 'Phase II' in PCP research as described in Figure 2. 

1. S. Kitagawa, et.al.,  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed,, 2004, 43, 2334 (Reviews). 
2. R.Kitaura, et.al.,  Science, 2002, 298, 2358. 
3. S.Kitagawa,  Nature, 2006  ,441,584. 4. R. Matsuda,  et.al.,  Nature,  2005, 436, 238. 
5. S.Shimomura, et.al.,  Nature Chemistry,  2010  .in press. 
6. S.Horike, et.al.,  Nature Chemistry, 2009, 1, 695. (Reviews). 
7. T.Uemura et.al.,  Chem.Soc.Rev. 2009, 38, 1228. 
8. S. Bureekaew, et.al.,  Nature Mater.,  2009, 8,831.