Linking molecular building blocks into extended structures by strong covalent bonds (reticular chemistry) is now commonly practiced in the synthesis of metal-organic frameworks wherein transition metal-oxide bonds (e.g., Zn-O) join organic units to make highly robust, porous structures. Recently, we showed that this chemistry can be extended to linking organic units by covalent bonds of small,…
The ability to covalently functionalize molecules is a long standing practice in organic chemistry that has led to advances in the synthesis of natural products, pharmaceuticals, and polymers. However, the analogous chemistry of crystalline extended solids remains undeveloped because they generally lose their structural integrity under the reaction conditions required to carry out meaningful o…