Investigating the low-frequency vibrational fingerprint of flexible metal-organic frameworks

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of porous crystalline materials consisting of metal-oxide clusters connected through organic linkers. The structural and chemical versatility of MOFs allows for their use in many potential applications. An important subclass of MOFs are the soft porous crystals displaying a bistable or multistable behavior with long-range structural order, which can undergo large volume changes upon exposure to external stimuli. Various indications have been reported that terahertz vibrations may trigger the observed flexibility. Therefore, this project aims at an in-depth investigation of phase transformations in soft porous crystals via vibrational spectroscopy.