Novel symmetrical coralloid Cu 3D superstructures: Solid-state synthesis from a Cu-carboxylate MOF and their in-situ thermal conversion

We describe here a one-step solid-state process for the synthesis of metal three-dimensional (3D) superstructures from a metal-organic framework (MOF). Novel symmetrical coralloid Cu 3D superstructures with surface interspersed with clusters of Cu nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by thermolysis of the [Cu3(btc)2] (btc=benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylato) MOF in a one-end closed horizontal tube furnace (OCTF). The obtained products were characterized by TGA, FT-IR, XRD, EDX, SEM, TEM, HRTEM and SAED. Different reaction conditions were discussed. Furthermore, the synthesized Cu samples were converted into CuO microstructures by in-situ calcination in the air. In addition, the possible formation mechanism was also proposed. This method is a simple and facile route, which builds a direct linkage between metal-carboxylate MOF crystals and metal nano- or microstructures and also opens a new application field of MOFs.