Molecular Tectonics: A Node-and-Linker Building Block Approach to a Family of Hydrogen Bonded Frameworks

While numerous hydrogen bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) have been reported, typically these cannot be prepared predictably or in a modular fashion. In this work, we report a family of nine diamondoid crystalline porous frameworks assembled via hydrogen bonding between poly-amidinium and poly-carboxylate tectons in aqueous media. Importantly, both the cationic and anionic components can be varied and additional functionality can be incorporated into the frameworks, which show good stability including to prolonged heating in DMSO or water.