0000000000016650
AUTHOR
Andrew J. Demello
Growing and Shaping Metal–Organic Framework Single Crystals at the Millimeter Scale
Controlling and understanding the mechanisms that harness crystallization processes is of utmost importance in contemporary materials science and, in particular, in the realm of reticular solids where it still remains a great challenge. In this work, we show that environments mimicking microgravity conditions can harness the size and shape of functional biogenic crystals such as peptide-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). In particular, we demonstrate formation of the largest single crystals with controlled nonequilibrium shapes of peptide-based MOFs reported to date (e.g., those featuring curved crystal habits), as opposed to the typical polyhedral microcrystals obtained under bul…
Biodegradable Metal-Organic Framework-Based Microrobots (MOFBOTs).
Microrobots and metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been identified as promising carriers for drug delivery applications. While clinical applications of microrobots are limited by their low drug loading efficiencies and the poor degradability of the materials used for their fabrication, MOFs lack motility and targeted drug delivery capabilities. The combination of these two fields marks the beginning of a new era; MOF‐based small‐scale robots (MOFBOTs) for biomedical applications. Yet, biodegradability is a major hurdle in the field of micro‐ and nanoswimmers including small‐scale robots. Here, a highly integrated MOFBOT that is able to realize magnetic locomotion, drug delivery, and selec…