Supramolecular approach to metal–organic gels using excess organic ligand as building units

A metal–organic gels containing Ag(4,4′-bipyridine)NO 3 metal–organic framework and 4,4′-bipyridine units were hydrothermally synthesized using excess 4,4′-bipyridine ligand as building units. The metal–organic gels structure was characterized by various spectroscopic methods and a mechanism of assembly was discussed on the basis of the obtained data. The metal–organic gels retained the characteristics of both the metal–organic framework and gels; furthermore, the reversible hydration/dehydration, reversible anion exchange, and responsive properties were also investigated.