Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been proposed as suitable for gas storage/separation, catalysis, chemical sensors, electronics, photonics, and ion conduction. Therefore, it is of interest to engineer the properties of MOFs. Two-photon processing is a simple method to tailor the properties of materials in three dimensions.
Banglin Chen, Guodong Qian, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, and colleagues have developed a two-photon responsive metal–organic framework (MOF). They incorporated a photoactive zwitterionic pyridinium linker into a MOF via a multivariate (MVT) strategy. The resulting MOF exhibits a significant one-photon and two-photon excited fluorescence change in response to UV light and infrared femtosecond laser. This enables spatial modulation of the fluorescence property of the MOF.
According to the researchers, the introduction of nonlinear optical linkers into MOFs for 3D patterning and two-photon imaging will make MOFs useful materials for sensor arrays and data storage media.
- Two-Photon Responsive Metal–Organic Framework,
Jiancan Yu, Yuanjing Cui, Chuan-De Wu, Yu Yang, Banglin Chen, Guodong Qian,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015.
DOI: 10.1021/ja512552g
