On-Demand Guest Release from MOF-5 Sealed with Nitrophenylacetic Acid Photocapping Groups

Recently, we demonstrated that triphenylacetic acid could be used to seal dye molecules within MOF-5, but guest release required digestion of the framework by treatment with acid. We prepared the sterically bulky photocapping group [bis-(3-nitro-benzyl)-amino]-(3-nitro-phenyl)-acetic acid (PC1) can prevent Crystal violet dye diffusion from inside MOF-5 until removed by photolysis.