A hydrostable anionic zinc-organic framework carrier with a bcu topology for drug delivery

A hydrostable anionic porous drug carrier MOF with a bcu topology constructed from trinuclear clusters, [(Me2NH2)2Zn3(fdc)4]n·DMA (1) (fdc = 2,5-furandicarboxylate, DMA = dimethylacetamide), was synthesized and structurally characterized. TGA, PXRD, and water vapor sorption results show high thermal and water stability for the framework. 1 exhibits a 3D framework with rectangular channels of 10.0 × 7.7 and 6.1 × 7.8 Å2 along the b axis. Desolvated 1 adsorbs around 17.2 wt% 5-fluorouracil and the cumulative release value of 5-fluorouracil at 72 h was about 93.3% in PBS (pH 7.4) at 37 °C. Results of in vivo zebrafish toxicity tests and in vitro MTT assays of 1 at different concentrations reveal that 1 is nontoxic.