title: Metal-like Boronic-Organic Frameworks: A Design and Computation.
abstract: Because of the lack of strong π-interaction in their bonds connecting building units, most of the metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent-organic frameworks (COFs) achieved so far are insulators or wide-bandgap semiconductors. The design of metal-like frameworks based on known chemical components is a challenge. This work reports that aryl borons can be linked together through isocyanides to form stable and easily accessible low-dimensional boronic-organic frameworks (BOFs). Particularly, the boron atoms in the BOFs behave like transition metals, forming the combined σ-donation and π-backdonation bonds instead of the usual electron-sharing bonds with the isocyanide linkers. This peculiar bonding endows BOFs with semimetal and narrow-bandgap semiconductor features, which are different from MOFs and COFs and may be found to be useful in future nanoelectronics. The results open a door to integrating the knowledge of the donor-acceptor chemistry in the main group into materials science.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University , Nanchang 330022, China.|CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xingfa
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1636-6336
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University , Nanchang 330022, China.|CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xuejiao J
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Gao