(Invited) Nanostructured Conjugated Materials in Metal-Organic Frameworks

Abstract

As conjugated polymers play crucial roles in advanced nanoscale devices, future applications require a deeper understanding optoelectrical properties of conjugated polymers in low-dimensional assemblies. Confinement of polymer chains in nanoporous materials is a feasible method to control the polymer assemblies because this approach can prevent the entanglement and conformational disorder of polymer chains in the bulk state. The regulated and tailor-made pore characteristics of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) allow the achievement of precise molecular assemblies in the nanopores, permitting fundamental studies on polymer properties that, until now, have remained elusive.1 Here, we report that the hybridization of MOFs and polythiophene (PTh) provides a great insight into inherent optoelectrical properties of PTh as well as functional nanomaterials for electronics and sensors.2 Controlled assembly of PTh donor and acceptor molecules is a key structure for photovoltaics and photocatalysis. We also demonstrated that unique interfaces between PTh and acceptor molecules, such as fullerene and titanium oxide, mediated by MOFs, enabled remarkable photoelectronic properties superior to conventional PTh systems.3 Other than conjugated polymers, a variety of conjugated materials, including graphene nanoribbons, could be prepared in MOFs, providing distinctly properties to those prepared in the bulk state because of the formation of specific assemblies.4 REFERENCES1. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2017, 46, 3108.2. (a) J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2015, 137, 5231. (b) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2016, 55, 708. (c) Polym. Chem., 2017, 8, 5077. (d) Eur. Polym. J., 2018, 109, 162. (e) J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2019, 141, 19565.3. (a) Nat. Commun., 2018, 9, 1660. (b) J. Phys. Chem. C, 2018, 122, 24182.4. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020 , 142, 5509. Figure 1