Structural survey of metal-covalent organic frameworks and covalent metal-organic frameworks

This article provides an overview of the latest developments in metal-covalent organic framework (MCOF) and covalent metal-organic framework (CMOF) materials, whose construction entails a combination of both reversible coordination and covalent bonding adapted from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), respectively. With an emphasis on the structures of MCOFs and CMOFs, this review surveys representative materials’ building blocks and topologies. Specifically, the frameworks are classified based on the dimensions of their components (building blocks): discrete building blocks and 1D infinite building blocks. For the first category, the materials were further divided into collections of two-dimensional (2D) networks and three-dimensional (3D) networks according to their topologies. For the second category, this article mainly covers the recently emerging MCOFs with woven structures. Finally, state-of-the-art in MCOF and CMOF chemistry has laid out promising avenues for future development.