Fig. 1. Comparison of MOF nanoparticles synthesis approaches.

Scheme of (a) the conventional modulator-induced-defect approach (MIDA) for the size-defect tuning of MOFs, (b) our approach that produces ultra-small and highly defective tetravalent-MOFs nanoparticles, Red, green, and brown represent O, Metal(IV), and C atoms, respectively; yellow sphere and green lines within the purple circles indicate the metal nodes and organic ligand, respectively.