Feature Chemistry

Perfecting Porosity

Better living through holey chemistry

By Jessica Gorman

- More than 2 years ago

Some chemists worry plenty about nothing . . . . Well, almost nothing. It’s the holes inside solid materials that are on their minds.

Big wheels: Stacked, flat rings of atoms–such as molybdenum, oxygen, and hydrogen–can form a cluster of channels with internal diameters of approximately 2 nanometers. Müller

In this prototype porous material, polyoxometalate clusters containing oxygen and vanadium atoms serve as building blocks.