Large surface area lends superpowers to ultra-porous materials

Some materials are special not for what they contain, but for what they don't contain. Such is the case with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) – ultra-porous structures that are being developed for a variety of future applications from fire-proofing to drug-delivery.

MOFs are, in fact, the most porous materials known to humankind. One metal-organic framework, so-called NU-110, has such a large surface area that just one gram of it could be unfolded to cover one-and-a-half football fields.

That huge internal surface area is a result of the atomic components – metal atoms linked together by organic molecules, forming a cage-like structure. It is by tinkering with the chemistry of these cages, and by inserting different objects inside them, that scientists are able to contemplate so many different applications.

"By judicious choice of the metals and linker molecules, there is a huge number of materials that can be prepared with properties designed for specific needs," said Dr. Ross Forgan of the University of Glasgow in the UK, who is exploring metal-organic frameworks forcancerdrug-delivery.