PVP-assisted synthesis of monodisperse UiO-66 crystals with tunable sizes

A polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-assisted synthesis method was reported to prepare monodisperse UiO-66 octahedral crystals with tunable sizes. In this acetic acid/PVP co-modulated synthesis system, the relatively weak coordination of PVP to Zr(IV) played an important role in manipulating the sizes of UiO-66 crystals instead of their shapes. With the optimized PVP concentrations, sizes of the monodisperse UiO-66 crystals could be effectively tuned from similar to 1900 nm to similar to 700 nm. These uniform MOF crystals could be assembled into monolayers on water surface and further transferred onto a solid substrate to yield MOF films with preferential orientation and controlled thicknesses. 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.