Reticular Chemistry and Harvesting Water from Desert Air

Although chemists, in general, are concerned with the art and science of constructing molecules and understanding their behavior, for a long time the idea that such molecules can be linked together by strong bonds to make infinite, extended structures were fraught with failure. The notion of using molecular building blocks to make such structures invariably led to chaotic, ill-defined materials and therefore not only defying the chemists’ need to exert their will on the design of matter but also preventing them from deciphering the atomic arrangement of such products. The field remained undeveloped for most of the twentieth century, and it was taken as an article of faith that linking molecules by strong bonds to make extended structures is a “waste of time” because “it doesn’t work.”