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Nano Research 2022, 15(7): 6607-6612 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4346-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 20 April 2022

The instability of a stable metal–organic framework in amino acid solutions

Show Author's Information Yiran Wang1,§,  Jinglin Yin1,§,  Weicheng Cao1,  Yao Fu1( ),  Xueqian Kong1,2,3( )
Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Department of Rehabilitation, Sir Run Run Shaw HospitalSchool of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Key Laboratory of Excited-State Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

§ Yiran Wang and Jinglin Yin contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
biomedical applications, stability, amino acids, metal–organic frameworks, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
Topics:
Organic frameworks
Cite this article:
Wang Y, Yin J, Cao W, et al. The instability of a stable metal–organic framework in amino acid solutions. Nano Research, 2022, 15(7): 6607-6612. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4346-y
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are being investigated as the potential materials for future drug delivery and gene therapy systems thanks to their tunable functionality and biocompatibility. However, the structure of MOFs could be altered in a biological environment or in a buffer solution. It is of great importance to evaluate the stability of MOFs and understand the degradation processes for the sake of the biomedical applications. In this work, we investigate the stability of UiO-66, a generally-perceived stable MOF, in different amino acid solutions. We find that UiO-66 loses crystallinity in relatively mild basic conditions (when pH ≥ 9) in the presence of amino acids. The instability is more pronounced in the lysine and arginine solutions which have stronger basicity. It can be attributed to the accelerated ligand exchange of UiO-66 under basic conditions. With a combination of techniques, we show that the amino acids can replace the organic linkers and form zirconium-amino acid complexes. Our research reveals one possible mechanism of MOF degradation in biological environment, yet such degradability could be also an important designable property for MOFs in biomedical applications.


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Abstract
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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

The instability of a stable metal–organic framework in amino acid solutions

Show Author's information Yiran Wang1,§, Jinglin Yin1,§, Weicheng Cao1, Yao Fu1( ), Xueqian Kong1,2,3( )
Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Department of Rehabilitation, Sir Run Run Shaw HospitalSchool of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Key Laboratory of Excited-State Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

§ Yiran Wang and Jinglin Yin contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are being investigated as the potential materials for future drug delivery and gene therapy systems thanks to their tunable functionality and biocompatibility. However, the structure of MOFs could be altered in a biological environment or in a buffer solution. It is of great importance to evaluate the stability of MOFs and understand the degradation processes for the sake of the biomedical applications. In this work, we investigate the stability of UiO-66, a generally-perceived stable MOF, in different amino acid solutions. We find that UiO-66 loses crystallinity in relatively mild basic conditions (when pH ≥ 9) in the presence of amino acids. The instability is more pronounced in the lysine and arginine solutions which have stronger basicity. It can be attributed to the accelerated ligand exchange of UiO-66 under basic conditions. With a combination of techniques, we show that the amino acids can replace the organic linkers and form zirconium-amino acid complexes. Our research reveals one possible mechanism of MOF degradation in biological environment, yet such degradability could be also an important designable property for MOFs in biomedical applications.

Keywords: biomedical applications, stability, amino acids, metal–organic frameworks, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 16 February 2022
Revised: 18 March 2022
Accepted: 21 March 2022
Published: 20 April 2022
Issue date: July 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21922410, 22072133, and 21673206), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. LR19B050001), and the Leading Innovation and Entrepreneurship Team of Zhejiang Province (No. 2020R01003).

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