Porous Organic Crystals and Inclusion Crystals as connectors of block-copolymer chains

The study of crystalline architectures showing permanent porosity that can absorb molecules from the gas phase or include selectively target polymer segments in the nanochannels will be addressed. The porous crystalline matrices span from dipeptide crystals (1) and molecular zeolites to metal-organic frameworks and crystalline hybrid organosilicas. The open pore structure of the nanochannels and the diffusion rates of the gases was established by hyperpolarized Xenon NMR whilst gases such as carbon dioxide and methane were observed directly by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy after gas diffusion into the cavities. In addition, in the crystalline pore walls of nanoporous hybrid material we recognized, for the first time, the presence of parallel and aligned molecular rotors, yielding an unsual anisotropic arrangement of surface-exposed molecular rotors in a 3D framework (2). The entrapment of molecules inside the channels could successfully regulate the fast molecular rotor dynamics.