ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Chem.
Sec. Porous Crystalline Networks
This article is part of the Research TopicWomen in Porous Crystalline NetworksView all articles
Biocompatible β-Cyclodextrin-based Metal-organic Frameworks
Provisionally accepted
Romy Ettlinger1,2*
Kirstin Wilson2
David Bradford Cordes2Aidan P Mckay2Aaron B Naden2Oxana V Magdysyuk2
Daniel N Rainer3A Robert Armstrong2Russell E Morris2Aamod V Desai2- 1Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich, Germany
- 2University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
- 3University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
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β-Cyclodextrin (β-CD) is a cyclic heptasaccharide, part of the family of molecules which are widely used in several biological applications. The unique cone-shape of cyclodextrins with multiple binding sites make them a well-suited building block for constructing porous crystalline solids, such as metalorganic frameworks (MOFs). However, owing to the symmetry constraints, progress in the coordination chemistry of β-CD with alkali and alkaline earth metal cations has been limited and there is less understanding of this chemistry compared to its analogues of α-CD and γ-CD. In this work, synthetic conditions were optimised to obtain two MOF structures with β-CD as the organic linker, one each with Na + and K + cations. As well as structural determination, detailed solid-state characterization is reported for both the MOFs. The structure analysis helps shed light on the binding tendencies of β-CD and these structures will further facilitate the deployment of biocompatible building blocks for the development of reticular solid materials.
Keywords: Cyclodextrin, Metal-Organic Frameworks, edible MOFs, Crystal growth, singlecrystal X-ray diffraction
Received: 08 Aug 2025; Accepted: 06 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ettlinger, Wilson, Cordes, Mckay, Naden, Magdysyuk, Rainer, Armstrong, Morris and Desai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Romy Ettlinger, romy.ettlinger@tum.de
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