Chemists at Northwestern University, USA, have synthesized, characterized, and computationally simulated the behavior of two new metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, which they say, display the highest experimental Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas of any porous material reported to date, about 7,000 m²/g.

Moreover, their computations show that by switching from bulky phenyl groups to space efficient acetylene moieties as the linker expansion units in their MOF, theoretically they can more than double this surface area. It remains to be seen whether that hypothetical MOF can be synthesized and tested.

Such materials have great potential in sustainable materials chemistry as molecular sieves, gas storage materials, air purification materials, and catalysts.

• Metal-organic Framework Materials with Ultrahigh Surface Areas: Is the Sky the Limit?
  O. K. Farha, I. Eryazici, N. C. Jeong, B. G. Hauser, C. E. Wilmer, A. A. Sarjeant, R. Q. Snurr, S. T. Nguyen, A. Ö. Yazaydin, J. T. Hupp,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja3055639