Metal-Organic Framework and Inorganic Glass Composites
Metal-organic framework (MOF) glasses have become a subject of study due to their novelty as an entirely new category of melt quenched glass and their potential applications in areas such as ion transport and sensing. In this paper we show how MOF glasses can be combined with inorganic glasses in order to fabricate a new family of optically transparent materials composed of both MOF and inorganic glass domains. We present the design rules for this family of materials, use an array of experimental techniques to propose the bonding between inorganic and MOF domains, and show that the composites produced are more mechanically pliant than the inorganic glass itself. ; This project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC grant UTOPES, grant agreement no. 681652). T.D.B acknowledges the Royal Society for a University Research Fellowship (UF150021), and a research grant (RSG\R1\180395). He wishes to thank the University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, New Zealand, for a University of Cambridge Visiting Canterbury Fellowship, and the Leverhulme Trust for a Philip Leverhulme Prize (2019). YX appreciates financial support from the European Commission through its European Social Fund (ESF) for Thuringia. LL acknowledges the EPSRC for a PhD studentship. A The authors gratefully acknowledge the provision of synchrotron access to Beamline I15-1 (EE20038), at the Diamond Light Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK.