Leili Esrafili - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box ۱۴۱۱۵-۱۷۵,Tehran, Iran.
Alireza Azhdari Tehrani - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box ۱۴۱۱۵-۱۷۵,Tehran, Iran.
Ali Morsali - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box ۱۴۱۱۵-۱۷۵,Tehran, Iran.

Urea groups are known to form strong hydrogen bonds with the molecules containing atom(s) that can act as hydrogen bond acceptor(s). Thus, Urea is a particularly interesting building block for designing receptor for neutral or charged guests. In the quest for new sensors with enhanced performance for the detection of nitroaromatics, a novel pillared metal-organic framework containing urea functional groups was synthesized and structurally characterized. The sensing properties of this framework toward nitroaromatics was investigated and compared to the recently reported structure, which is another member of urea-containing MOFs family. The study clearly reveals the importance of urea groups orientation inside the pore cavity of MOFs, as well as the supramolecular interactions between the interpenetrated networks. This work is interesting as it represents the first example of urea-functionalized MOFs for nitroaromatics recognition.

metal organic frame work, nitroaromatic sensing