Material research and discovery are pillars of technological progress. Metal-organic framework (MOF) chemistry is a route to the creation of new materials, utilizing metal ions as nodes and organic molecules as spacers to build continuous networks. The diversity of metal ions and organic linkers allows an infinite number of combinations. MOFs have been used in several applications such as catalysis, gas sorption and storage, electronics, magneto-electronics, photonics, and quantum technology. Furthermore, the combination of quasicrystals and metal–organic structures results in promising multifunctional systems with great potential for applications. However, the quasicrystalline order in MOFs has been difficult to identify thus far.
The work described is based on inorganic synthesis combined with a broad range of physical and chemical characterization techniques. The research illustrates a chemical strategy to tailor Archimedean tessellation topologies in MOFs by exploiting lanthanide (Ln) ions with high coordination numbers. The five-vertex tilings indicate the occurrence of metal–organic quasicrystalline phases in a bulk material. The findings of this study promote the development of next-generation materials with complex and aperiodic structures exhibiting novel magnetic phenomena originating from the unique properties of Ln ions.