title: Urea Metal-Organic Frameworks for Nitro-Substituted Compounds Sensing.
abstract: Urea groups are known to form strong hydrogen bonds with molecules containing atom(s) that can act as hydrogen bond acceptor(s). Thus, urea is a particularly interesting building block for designing receptors for neutral or charged guests. In the quest for new sensors with enhanced performance for the detection of nitro-substituted compounds, two pillared metal-organic frameworks containing urea functional groups were synthesized and structurally characterized. The sensing properties of these frameworks toward nitro-analytes were investigated and compared to each other. The study clearly reveals the importance of urea groups orientation inside the pore cavity of MOFs, as well as the supramolecular interactions between the interpenetrated networks. This work is interesting as it represents the first example of urea-functionalized MOFs for nitro-analytes recognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University , P.O. Box 14115-175, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8070-9164
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Azhdari Tehrani
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University , P.O. Box 14115-175, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Leili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Esrafili
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University , P.O. Box 14115-175, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sedigheh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abedi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University , P.O. Box 14115-175, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1828-7287
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morsali
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Milano , Milano 20133, Italy.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carlucci
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Milano , Milano 20133, Italy.|Samara Center for Theoretical Materials Science (SCTMS), Samara University , Samara 443086, Russia.
authors.forename: Davide M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6597-9406
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Proserpio
authors.affiliation: College of Science & Engineering, James Cook University , Townsville Qld, 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Science & Engineering, James Cook University , Townsville Qld, 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Junk
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University , 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, United States.
authors.forename: Tianfu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu