Cd(NO₃)₂·4H₂O, Zn(NO₃)₂·6H₂O), N,N- dimethylformamide (DMF) and H₂bpydc were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich and used without further purification unless otherwise mentioned.

Single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) data collection was done on a Bruker KAPPA APEX II DUO Diffractometer equipped with graphite monochoromated Mo Kα radiation (λ = 0.71073 Å). The XPERT-PRO diffractometer (Cu Kα radiation) was used to collect Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data. A current flow of 40 mA and voltage of 40 kV was used to generate the X-rays. The Perkin Elmer Fourier BX II fitted with an ATR probe was used to collect Fourier Transform Infrared (FITR) spectra of the samples. The thermal profiles of the JMS-3a and JMS-4a were recorded on a TA Discovery Instrument TA-Q50. In a typical experiment, samples weighing between 2 and 5 mg were heated at 10°C min⁻¹ within a temperature range of 25–600°C under nitrogen purge gas flow of 50 mLmin⁻¹. Adsorption studies were performed using a Micrometrics 3Flex Surface Analyser. The samples were prepared by using a Micrometrics Flowprep with the flow of nitrogen over the samples for 4 h at 60°C. The samples were activated at 150°C under vacuum for 2 h before the analysis to remove all the solvent molecules.

JMS-3: About 25 mg (0.098 mmol) of H₂bpydc was predissolved in DMF (10 mL) followed by addition of Cd(NO₃)₂·4H₂O (117 mg, 0.38 mmol). The resulting solution was sealed in a glass vial and heated at 115°C for 8 h to yield colorless block shaped crystals. Elemental Analysis, Found % C 43.3, %H 4, %N 11.4, calculated, % C 43.1, %H 3.99, %N 11.2.

JMS-4: A mixture of H₂bpydc (27 mg, 0.105 mmol) and Zn(NO₃)₂·6H₂O (112 mg, 0.377 mmol) were dissolved in DMF at room temperature. The reaction mixture was placed in a sealed glass vial and heated at 100°C for 6 h to obtain colorless block crystals. Elemental Analysis, Found % C, 47.5 %H 4.2, %N 12.1, calculated, % C 47.6, %H 4.4, %N 12.3

JMS-3 and JMS-4's single crystal data were collected on a Bruker KAPPA APEX II DUO diffractometer equipped with graphite monochoromated Mo Kα radiation (λ = 0.71073 Å). The SAINT program was used for unit cell refinement and data reduction. The structures of the two MOFs were solved by direct methods (program SHELXS2018) (Sheldrick, 2018) and refined anisotropically on F² full-matrix least-squares with SHELXL (Sheldrick, 2018) using the X-SEED (Barbour, 2001) interface. All non-hydrogen atoms were refined anisotropically The hydrogen atoms were placed in idealized positions using the riding model and assigned temperature factors relative to the parent atom. The crystallographic data for JMS-3 and JMS-4 with CCDC numbers 2010231 and 2010232, respectively, is given in Table 1.

X-ray diffraction analysis using the single crystal method revealed that JMS-3 crystallizes in the monoclinic system and space group P2₁/c. The asymmetric unit of JMS-3, comprises of two crystallographic independent Cd(II) centers, two deprotonated bpydc linkers, two coordinated DMF molecules and two uncoordinated DMFs. As shown in Figure 1, each cadmium metal center is bound to three bpydc linkers. The carboxylate moiety assumes both bidentate and monodentade binding mode. Two nitrogen atoms of the third linker are chelated to Cd(II). A DMF molecule is also bound to each of the Cd(II) centers. The Cd–N bond length around Cd ranges from 2.318(2) to 2.366 (3) while Cd-O ranges from 2.239 (2) to 2.588(2) Å (see Supplementary Table 1). The bond length around the two metal centers are different. This explains why the structure contains two crystallographically independent Cd(II) centers. The Cd(II) metal center assumes a distorted octahedral geometry with bond angles ranging from 54.19(8) to 152.57(9) and 84.89(8) to 154.73(8)° for Cd1 and Cd2, respectively. The packing diagram of JMS-3 displays 2D networks which are interdigited (Figure 2A). Coordinated and uncoordinated DMF molecules are trapped in the rectangular channels as illustrated in Figure 2B. Weak intermolecular and intramolecular C-H…O bonding exist between the host framework and guest molecules. These are suggested to reinforce the geometry and impart stability in the MOF. Guest molecules occupy 53.8% of the unit cell volume, as estimated in PLATON (Spek, 2009).

JMS-4 crystallizes in the P2₁ space group. The asymmetric unit comprises of one zinc metal center, one deprotonated bpydc linker and two DMF molecules. The Zn(II) is coordinated to one bpydc linker through two monodentate Zn(II)-O bonds to the carboxylate moiety, two bipyridyl nitrogen atoms in a chelating fashion and one DMF molecule. This gives rise to a trigonal bipyramidal coordination as illustrated in Figure 3. The Zn–N ranges from 2.1019(2) to 2.177(3) Å while the Zn-O bond length ranges from and 1.976(2) to 2.104(2), respectively. These bond lengths are given in Supplementary Table 2 and are consistent with literature reports. Analysis of the bond angles around the zinc center shows that they are within a range of 76.40(10) to 159.71(10)°. Figure 4 shows the packing diagram of JMS-4 with 2D layers packing in a similar fashion to that of JMS-3. The observed rectangular channels which are occupied by both coordinated and uncoordinated DMF molecules (10.342 × 9.036 Å) run along b-axis. PLATON (Spek, 2009) estimates that the volume occupied by both the coordinated and uncoordinated DMF molecules accounts for 52.3% of the unit cell volume. There are no noticeable interactions between the 2D network and the uncoordinated guest DMF molecules. However, weak intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the 2D layers and π…π interactions of the aromatic rings stabilizes the structure.

Thermal analysis of JMS-3 by TGA illustrated in Supplementary Figure 1 exhibits an initial mass loss of 28.6% between 100 and 150°C. The observed weight loss is attributed to the extrusion of four DMF molecules (calculated 29.2%). The MOF was activated by replacing the DMF molecules by methanol followed by heating at 24 h at 80°C to give JMS-3a. As shown in Figure 5A, a comparison of the experimental PXRD of JMS-3 with the calculated pattern, reveals a good match confirming phase purity of the as-synthesized MOF. Upon removal of the guest DMF molecules, JMS-3 undergoes a structural transformation as evidenced by the appearance of new diffraction peaks around 10, 16, and 27 two-theta positions.

FTIR results presented in Figure 5B shows that the band at 1708 cm⁻¹ in the linker shifts to 1,604 cm⁻¹ in JMS-3, which is evidence that the carboxylate moiety is coordinated to the Cd(II) center. These results are consistent with single crystal X-ray data. Successful activation of the MOF is evidenced by the disappearance of the FTIR band at 1,641 cm⁻¹, which is attributed to the carbonyl stretch of DMF molecules. The band located at 1,550 cm⁻¹ is attributed to the C-C of the benzene ring. The carboxylate asymmetric and symmetric carboxylate stretches were observed at 1,604 and 1,365 cm⁻¹, respectively, with a magnitude of separation of 239 cm⁻¹. After activation of JMS-3, the position of the bands does not change suggesting that the integrity of the carboxylate functional group is retained (Lu et al., 2016).

The thermal behavior of JMS-4 was examined by TGA. An initial weight loss of 32.5% observed in the TGA curve in Supplementary Figure 2 is attributed to the loss of two DMF molecules modeled in the asymmetric unit (calculated 32.2%). Framework decomposition occurs around 350°C. No significant weight loss occurs below 350°C on the TGA curve of the activated framework (JMS-4a), indicating solvent molecules have been completely removed, although due to humidity, about 4% loss was still observed on the activated sample curve.

PXRD studies confirmed the phase purity of JMS-4 as evidenced by excellent agreement between the calculated and experimental diffraction patterns (Figure 6A). Upon activation of JMS-4 a new phase is obtained. The IR spectrum of as-synthesized JMS-4 (Figure 6B) shows a band at 1,648 cm⁻¹ assignable to carbonyl stretch of DMF molecules. This band disappears upon activation. The bands at 1,590 and 1,378 cm⁻¹ are assigned to the asymmetric and symmetric stretches of the carboxylate group respectively, with a magnitude of separation of 212 cm⁻¹. Upon activation, the FTIR analysis suggests that the integrity of carboxylate moiety with respect to its binding mode is not altered (Lu et al., 2016).

Topological analysis of JMS-3 and JMS-4 was perfomed using Topos computer programme (Coelho, 2007). As shown in Figure 7A, the compound was reduced to a simple net by considering each metal center as a 4 connected node. Each cadmium center is connected to the other cadimium center by the linear bpydc bridges to produce a square-lattice (sql) topology (Mehlana et al., 2013, 2017). The packing in Figure 7B is a zig-zag 2D layered network. The packing is in an offset position with approximately equi-distances between the layers (Mehlana et al., 2015a; Tella et al., 2017). Although the two MOFs have diffrenent geometries around the metal center and crystallize in different space groups, they exhibit the same sql topology.

The kinetics of DMF desorption in JMS-3 and JMS-4 were investigated to determine the activation energy required to remove the guest molecules. The Ozawa method, which relies on the use of several heating rates and the temperature being recorded at specific conversion levels for each heating rate was used (Ozawa, 1965). The method made makes use of the equation below:

Where β_α – heating rate

A_α – frequency factor

E_aα – activation energy

T_a – temperature at each conversion level

g_α – kinetic model

The equation can be used to calculate the activation energies at each conversion level. The TGA data was converted to extent-of-reaction (α) vs. temperature and the information obtained from the curves used to plot graphs of log β_α vs. 1/T_a. The activation energies for JMS-3 ranged from 68.9 to 90.1 kJ mol⁻¹ within a conversion range 16.7–83.3% conversion levels, respectively, while the activation energies ranging from 68.9 to 91.6 kJ/mol for JMS-4 within a conversion range of 22–80%. Figure 8A shows the desorption kinetic profiles of JMS-4 at different heating rates from the non-isothermal runs while Figure 8B depicts plots of log β vs, 1/T, the slope of which is ensued the activation energies at the different conversion levels. The kinetic profiles of JMS-3 is presented in Supplementary Figure 3. The two MOFs exhibited similar average activation energies of 81.65 and 82.35 kJ/mol for JMS-3 and JMS-4, respectively. The observed energies are consistent with the modeled DMF molecules being coordinated to the metal center and the structural features of the MOFs.

To test the chemical stability, the activated MOFs, JMS-3a and JMS-4a were soaked in different organic solvents for 36 h. As shown in the PXRD pattern of the recovered samples (Figure 9A), JMS-3a is not stable under different chemical environments. A new phase, which is uniform throughout is obtained. Contrary to JMS-3a, the structure of JMS-4a is maintained as shown by an excellent agreement between the PXRD paterrns of the activated phase and the ones obtained after soaking the materials in different solvents for 36 h (Figure 9B).

CO₂ adsorption isotherms of JMS-3a and MOF JMS-4a carried at temperatures (298, 273, and 195 K) and 1 atm pressure (Figure 10) revealed a Type-1 isotherm, which is typical of microporous materials (Alhamami et al., 2014). JMS-3a gave volumetric uptakes of 26.50 and 30.89 cm³ (STP) g⁻¹ (1.18 and 1.39 mmolg⁻¹) whist JMS-4a gave 10.96 and 16.08 cm³ (STP) g⁻¹ (0.49 and 0.71 mmolg⁻¹) at 298 and 273 K, respectively. At 195 K, the MOFs show a rapid uptake of CO₂ at low pressure with volumetric uptake of 34.66 and 38.84 cm³ (STP)g⁻¹ (1.52 and 1.74 mmolg⁻¹) for JMS-3a and JMS-4a, respectively, confirming inherent permant porosity of the MOFs. CO₂ sorption studies at 273 K revealed a surface area of 151 and 36 m²g⁻¹ for JMS-3a and JMS-4a, respectively. The use of CO₂ sorption for BET calculation is controversial, however, Bae et al. demonstrated that this method maybe applied to ultramicroporous materals at 273 K (Kim et al., 2016). JMS-3a perform exceptionally well for CO₂ capture at 273 and 298 K, probably due to its high suface area compared to JMS-4a. Upon activation, the PXRD pattern of JMS-3a (Figure 3) shows that structural transformation is not much as compared to JMS-4a (Figure 7). The adsorption branches of the isotherm carried out at 273 and 298 K were used to obtain a precise prediction over the quantity of CO₂ adsorbed at the saturation point (Ugale et al., 2018). The estimated values of isosteric heat (Q_st) of adsorption for JMS-3a were found to be 33–34 kJ mol⁻¹ at loading values ranging from 0.12 to 0.99 mmol g⁻¹(Supplementary Figure 4). CO₂ isotherms for JMS-4a between 273 and 298 K revealed isosteric heats of adsorption values of 29–31 kJ mol⁻¹ at loading values of 0.32–0.45 mmol g⁻¹ (Supplementary Figure 5). The observed CO₂ uptake indicate moderate to strong interaction of CO₂ with the MOFs and are comparable to other MOFs reported in literature as illustrated in Table 2.

Hydrogen sorption studies in Figure 11 reveals a storage capacity of up to 65 and 51 cm³g⁻¹ for JMS-3a and JMS-4a at 800 mmHg and 77K, corresponding to sorption of 0.58 and 0.46 wt.% (2.88 and 2.29 mmolg⁻¹), and displays a significant hysteresis loop. The hydrogen adsorption values are comparable to that of [Cd₂(Tzc)₂]n (0.55 wt.%) and [Zn(hfipbb)(bpt)]_n (0.44 wt.%) but less than that of [Zn(TCPB)2]_n (0.80 wt.%) under similar conditions.