Abstract

In mineralogy we are well used to thinking about framework structures of silicates in terms of corner-linked SiO4 tetrahedra. There has been a recent growth in interest in framework structures where polyhedral groups of atoms are linked by molecules rather than a shared oxygen atom. I will discuss work we are carrying out on zinc imidazolate systems, which are nice analogues of silicates. This work will be a mixture of modelling via fitting to neutron scattering data and developing interatomic potentials for various applications.

Structure and properties of an amorphous metal-organic framework. TD Bennett, AL Goodwin, MT Dove, DA Keen, MG. Tucker, ER Barney, AK Soper, EG Bithell, J-C Tan and AK Cheetham. Physical Review Letters 104, art no 115503 (4 pp), 2010