Guest-specific double- or single-step adsorption in a flexible porous framework based on a mixed-ligand system.

A 2D flexible metal-organic porous solid, {Ni(1,3-adc)(bpp)(H2O)2(EtOH)}n (1), has been synthesized using flexible organic linkers. The desolvated framework, {[Ni(1,3-adc)(bpp)]}n (1'), undergoes structural contraction and exhibits double-step hysteretic adsorption for CO2, H2O, and MeOH and single-step gate-opening behavior with EtOH. These observations are correlated with the effect of the polarity and window dimension of the pore to the corresponding adsorbate molecules.