Dense Dithiolene Units on Metal–Organic Frameworks for Mercury Removal and Superprotonic Conduction

With 2-COOH and 4-SH donors all packed onto the benzene ring, tetrasulfanyl terephthalic acid (TST) is a simple yet fully equipped ligand to move the field of metal-coordination materials─it is now accomplished. The hard-soft carboxyl-thiol synergy is leveraged here in selectively bonding the carboxyl units to Zr(IV) ions to form the same cubic net of UiO-66 (this being based on the terephthalic linker)─with the free-standing dithiolene units equipping the grid of ZrTST. The 3D network of ZrTST averages about 7.6 connections [as in Zr