Neil Champness’s lab at the University of Birmingham recently broke a record, but probably not one you were tracking. The team made a metal-organic framework (MOF) with 16 metals in it, narrowly edging out the previous record of 15. Full disclosure: this energy-dispersive X-ray map of the MOF shows only—only?—12 of its metals (color-coded at the bottom of the image).
When the researchers began this project, they wanted to just make a new MOF, but they quickly realized that the reaction that formed their material could incorporate a large number of elements. They also realized that the ratios of the metals can tune the MOF’s ability to adsorb CO2, its magnetic properties, and its interactions with UV and visible light. Now the lab is playing with those ratios to discover even more materials.