June 25th, 2015

Iranian researchers from Tarbiat Modarres University used a new method in their research to produce metal-organic nanostructures with controlled shape and structure.

This method reduces production costs but increases the rate of production. Results of the research can be used in various industries such as electronics.
Specific morphology of a compound is required for some specific applications. There are limited methods for the synthesis of micro and nanostructures with specific and controlled morphologies. Modulation is one of these methods. In this research, metal-organic frameworks based on zinc have been synthesized in a controlled manner by using modulation method at micrometric and nanometric scales in sheet and rod morphologies.
The proposed method resulted in the quick, smart and controlled synthesis of metal-organic frameworks. Therefore, the results can be used in the production of nanostructured materials with specific morphologies to be used in industries such as electronics.
The synthesized nanostructures have rod and sheet morphologies. This research studied the effect of changes in temperature, time and concentration of raw materials on different morphologies. Then, the catalytic activity of the synthesized plate and rod morphologies was investigated in Knoevenagel dense catalytic reaction. This reaction takes place between carbonyl compounds and active methylene compounds for the production of carbon-carbon bond, and it is considered as one of the most important methods to produce functionalized alkenes. Results showed that the rate of catalytic reaction increased when rod type morphology was used at nanometric scale.