Exploiting Microwave Chemistry for Activation of Metal–Organic Frameworks

Microwave is thought of as a useful electromagnetic radiation tool because it is often used in real life as well as in a variety of chemical processes. Meanwhile, activation of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), which must be essentially done to remove coordinating and pore-filling solvents before the use of MOFs for various applications, has been performed commonly with the methods of heat supply or solvent exchange. Here, we show a new methodological microwave activation (MA), realizing it with various MOFs such as HKUST-1, UiO-66, and MOF-74s. For instance, microwave irradiation to the MOF samples for 4–35 min leads to the complete activation of the MOFs without structural damage. As described below, we further demonstrate that the solvent-assisted MA, which is the MA process performed after the solvent exchange, can substantially reduce the time for the activation by 4 min.