title: Self-Exfoliated Metal-Organic Nanosheets through Hydrolytic Unfolding of Metal-Organic Polyhedra.
abstract: Few-layers thick metal-organic nanosheets have been synthesized using water-assisted solid-state transformation through a combined top-down and bottom-up approach. The metal-organic polyhedra (MOPs) convert into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) which subsequently self-exfoliate into few-layered metal-organic nanosheets. These MOP crystals experience a hydrophobicity gradient with the inner surface during contact with water because of the existence of hydrophobic spikes on their outer surface. When the amount of water available for interaction is higher, the resultant layers are not stacked to form bulk materials; instead few-layered nanosheets with high uniformity were obtained in high yield. The phenomenon has resulted high yield production of uniformly distributed layered metal-organic nanosheets from three different MOPs, showing its general adaptability.
authors.affiliation: Physical and Materials Chemistry Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune, 411008, India.|Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Bikash
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Garai
authors.affiliation: Physical and Materials Chemistry Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune, 411008, India.|Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Arijit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mallick
authors.affiliation: Instability and Soft Patterning Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India.
authors.forename: Anuja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Instability and Soft Patterning Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India.
authors.forename: Rabibrata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.affiliation: Physical and Materials Chemistry Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune, 411008, India.|Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Rahul
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3547-4746
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Banerjee
keywords: cage compounds; hydrophobicity; layered materials; metal-organic nanosheets; metal-organic polyhedra