Scientists have created a new family of materials whose behavior can be tuned by changing their metallic “recipe”—opening new possibilities for uses including gas storage and sensing.

Led by the University of Birmingham, chemists have created a highly adaptable metal-organic framework (MOF), in which metal atoms are connected by organic molecules to create highly ordered structures containing tiny pores.

Publishing their discovery in Angewandte Chemie, the team has shown that changing the proportions of metals within the material can alter properties including magnetism, porosity, light absorption and CO₂ uptake.