32. Development of Efficient Synthetic Routes for Substituted Imidazoles to Use as Linkers in Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks

Abstract

Imidazoles are an important class of organic molecules that can be found as components of active pharmaceutical ingredients or larger macromolecules. As recent as the early 2000s, imidazoles have been used to create a class of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) known as zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs). Imidazoles in a ZIF structure act as linkers between zinc metal centers leading to porous, net-like or reticular structures. The importance of this new class of materials is that they resemble inorganic aluminosilicate zeolites in topological morphology, being microporous and having the ability to absorb or house other materials, yet are much less difficult to synthesize and modify. As of 2010, over one-hundred different ZIF structures have been reported based on modification of the imidazole linkers and reaction conditions. This provides an entirely new area chemical exploration with respect creating imidazole linkers with different chemical properties that can be applied within metal organic frameworks. The goal of the project is to explore synthetic modification of imidazoles to create either mono, di, or tri substituted rings, potentially allowing for the functionality and overall structure of future framework materials to be controlled and tailored for various applications including gas separation, catalysis, and drug delivery.