(Invited) Electronic and Photophysical Properties of Surface-Anchored Metal-Organic Frameworks (SURMOFs)

Abstract

The huge versatility and unparalleled level of control in the design of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has recently been shown to also carry a huge potential for applications based on the electrical, electronic and photophysical properties of this rich class of materials. Recent examples are MOF-based electrochemical [1,2], photo-electrochemical [3] and photovoltaic devices [4,5], as well as photon-upconversion [6]. Since at present methods to provide reliable and reproducible contacts to MOF-materials are scarce, we have developed a method to produce well-defined, highly oriented and monolithic MOF thin films supported on different types of surfaces, also referred to as SURMOFs [7]. This procedure in particular allows the fabrication of hetero-multilayers (see Fig. 1). In this talk, we will describe the fabrication of such well-defined model systems as well as the results of detailed, multi-technique investigations of electrical [8] and photophysical properties exhibited by empty and loaded MOFs, including cyclic voltammetry, atomic force microscopy, quartz crystal microbalance and UV-Vis spectroscopy. In this talk, we will demonstrate that the huge size of the chemical space spanned by MOFs can be further drastically increased by loading MOFs with nanoparticles or quantum dots. In this context, SURMOFs offer particular advantages since the loading can be carried out in a layer-by-layer fashion, offering the potential to fabricate hetero-mulitlayers.