What particular mechanical properties can be expected for materials composed of interlocked backbones has been a long-standing issue in materials science since the first reports on polycatenane and polyrotaxane in the 1970s^1,2,3. Here we report a three-dimensional porous metal–organic crystal, which is exceptional in that its warps and wefts are connected only by catenation. This porous crystal is composed of a tetragonal lattice and dynamically changes its geometry upon guest molecule release, uptake and exchange, and also upon temperature variation even in a low temperature range. We indented⁴ the crystal along its a/b axes and obtained the Young’s moduli of 1.77 ± 0.16 GPa in N,N-dimethylformamide and 1.63 ± 0.13 GPa in tetrahydrofuran, which are the lowest among those reported so far for porous metal–organic crystals⁵. To our surprise, hydrostatic compression showed that this elastic porous crystal was the most deformable along its c axis, where 5% contraction occurred without structural deterioration upon compression up to 0.88 GPa. The crystal structure obtained at 0.46 GPa showed that the catenated macrocycles move translationally upon contraction. We anticipate our mechanically interlocked molecule-based design to be a starting point for the development of porous materials with exotic mechanical properties. For example, squeezable porous crystals that may address an essential difficulty in realizing both high abilities of guest uptake and release are on the horizon.

^{自 1970 年代1,2,3}首次报道聚链烷和聚轮烷以来，由互锁主链组成的材料可以预期哪些特定的机械性能一直是材料科学中长期存在的问题。在这里，我们报告了一种三维多孔金属有机晶体，它的独特之处在于其经线和纬线仅通过链状连接。这种多孔晶体由四方晶格组成，并在客体分子释放、吸收和交换时动态改变其几何形状，即使在低温范围内也会随着温度变化而变化。我们沿其a / b轴缩进^{4 个晶体，并在}N中获得了 1.77 ± 0.16 GPa 的杨氏模量，N-二甲基甲酰胺和四氢呋喃中的 1.63 ± 0.13 GPa，这是迄今为止报道的多孔金属有机晶体⁵中最低的。令我们惊讶的是，静水压缩表明这种弹性多孔晶体沿其c方向最易变形。轴，其中在压缩至 0.88 GPa 时发生 5% 的收缩而没有结构恶化。在 0.46 GPa 下获得的晶体结构表明，链状大环在收缩时会平移。我们预计我们的基于机械互锁分子的设计将成为开发具有特殊机械性能的多孔材料的起点。例如，可以解决实现客体吸收和释放的高能力的基本困难的可挤压多孔晶体即将出现。