Towards an environmentally-friendly laboratory: dimensionality and reactivity in the mechanosynthesis of metal–organic compounds

We present a proof-of-principle study of an environmentally-friendly approach to laboratory research, in which the synthesis and structural characterisation of metal–organic complexes and frameworks are achieved without using bulk solvents; our study addresses the use of heteroditopic ligands for manipulating the dimensionality of metal–organic materials and describes how kinetic obstacles in such mechanosynthesis can be overcome