Turn‐On Circularly Polarized Luminescence in Metal–Organic Frameworks

Tunable Multicolor Circularly Polarized Luminescence via Co-assembly of One Chiral Electron Acceptor with Various Donors

Producing circularly polarized luminescence by radiative energy transfer from achiral metal-organic cage to chiral organic molecules

ConspectusOver the past three decades, discrete metal-organic cages (MOCs) have captured significant interest as a versatile class of supramolecular architectures. MOCs are discrete molecular assemblies of organic ligands and metal nodes (ions/clusters) that possess an intrinsic porosity. Unlike extended frameworks (MOFs), their discrete nature affords superior solution processability, modifiability, and structural tunability. Collectively, these attributes underpin diverse applications in molecular recognition, catalysis, separation, optics, and so on.Building on their discrete nature, MOCs' predesigned architectures inherently facilitate postsynthetic modification (PSM), enabling the installation of new functional groups and properties via the tailored modification of linkers, metal nodes, pores, or surface environments. To date, a number of stable MOCs have been reported, several of which have been utilized for PSM, such as paddle-wheel Cu-MOCs and hydrothermally stable Zr-MOCs. The development of these stable precursors has unlocked new avenues for functionalization, transcending the limitations of direct synthesis.In 2017, we reported the first example of anionic coordination titanium tetrahedra (Ti4L6) featuring calixarene-like coordination-active vertices. Self-assembled from mononuclear Ti nodes and rigid-flexible hydroxycarboxylate ligands, these cages possess unique structural features. Specifically, they exhibit excellent solution processability and abundant active sites (e.g., exposed oxygen atoms and naphthalene rings), which render them ideal for hierarchical assembly (including PSM). Since then, substantial progress in this area has enabled the generation of a diverse range of structures.In this Account, we systematically summarize these developments, focusing on four key pathways: (1) surface modification for catalysis and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL); (2) coordination-assembled cage-based frameworks for molecular recognition/separation; (3) supramolecular assembly (H-bonding/π-π stacking) for nonlinear optics (NLO); and (4) template-directed synthesis of rare cage-supported MOFs for enhanced NLO. Notably, this Account addresses the existing gap in integrating the "precursor design → hierarchical assembly → functional application" pipeline for Ti4L6 cages, providing a coherent conceptual framework for researchers in supramolecular chemistry and materials science. Finally, the future perspectives for Ti4L6 cages are discussed to guide further innovation in this evolving field.

Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) switches have attracted widespread attention due to their potential applications in advanced information technologies. However, the design and fabrication of solid-state multiple-responsive CPL switches remain challenging. Here, through self-assembly of chiral metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and perovskite nanocrystals (NCs), a pair of crystalline enantiomeric (P)-(+)/(M)-(-)-EuMOF⊃MAPbX3 (MA = CH3 NH3 + , X = Cl- , Br- , I- ) adducts is prepared, where the achiral MAPbBr3 perovskite NCs embedded into chiral MOFs inherit the chirality of host MOFs by host-guest EuBr and PbO coordination bonds, which is demonstrated by synchrotron-radiation-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The chiral adducts show enhanced photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), good thermal stability of CPL in air, and photoswitchable CPL properties upon altering different UV irradiation. Based on two chiral emission centers and their different characteristics, reversible CPL switches are realized upon a diversity of external stimuli, for example, chemicals (water /CH3 NH3 Br solution) or temperatures (room temperature/high temperature). Benefiting from the extraordinary stimuli-responsive and highly reversible switchable CPL, multiple information encryptions and decryptions integrated with CPL, together with a chiroptical logic gate are successfully designed. This work opens a new avenue to generally fabricate solid-state CPL composite materials and develops new applications based on switchable CPL.

Chiral metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) are usually endowed by chiral linkers and/or guests. The strategy using chiral secondary building units in MOFs for solving the trade‐off of circularly polarized luminescence (CPL)‐active materials, high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) and high dissymmetry factors (|glum|) has not been demonstrated. This work directionally assembles predesigned chiral silver clusters with ACQ linkers through reticular chemistry. The nanoscale chirality of the cluster transmits through MOF's framework, where the linkers are arranged in a quasi‐parallel manner and are efficiently isolated and rigidified. Consequently, this backbone of chiral cluster‐based MOFs demonstrates superb CPL, high PLQYs of 50.3%, and |glum| of 1.2 × 10−2. Crystallographic analyses and DFT calculations show the quasi‐parallel arrangement manners of emitting linkers leading to a large angle between the electric and magnetic transition dipole moments, boosting CPL response. As compared, an ion‐pair‐direct assembly without interactions between linkers induces one‐ninth |glum| and one‐sixth PLQY values, further highlighting the merits of directional arrangement in reticular nets. In addition, a prototype CPL switching fabricated by a chiral framework is controlled through alternating ultraviolet and visible light. This work is expected to inspire the development of reticular chemistry for high‐performance chiroptical materials.

Supramolecular Nanohelix Fabricated by Pillararene-Based Host–Guest System for Chirality Amplification, Transfer, and Circularly Polarized Luminescence in Water

Chirality Transfer from Chiral Mesoporous Silica to Perovskite CsPbBr ₃ Nanocrystals: The Role of Chiral Confinement

Optical Properties and Applications of Crystalline Materials

Chirality transfer, induction, and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) using supramolecular hosts, such as macrocycles and cages, have been explored for wide-ranging applications in chiral reco...

Host‐guest chemistry of chiral metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) has endowed them with circularly polarized luminescence (CPL), it is still limited for MOFs to systematically tune full‐color CPL emissions and sizes. This work directionally assembles the chiral ligands, metal sites and organic dyes to prepare a series of crystalline enantiomeric D/L‐Cd/Zn‐n MOFs (n=1~5, representing the adding amount of dyes), where D/L‐Cd/Zn with the formula of Cd 2 (D/L–Cam) 2 (TPyPE) and Zn 2 (D/L–Cam) 2 (TPyPE) (D/L‐Cam=D/L‐camphoric acid, TPyPE=4,4’,4’’,4’’’‐(1,2‐henediidenetetra‐4,1‐phenylene)tetrakis[pyridine]) were used as the chiral platforms. The framework‐dye‐enabled emission and through‐space chirality transfer facilitate D/L‐Cd/Zn‐n bright full‐color CPL activity. The ideal yellow CPL of D‐Cd‐5 and D‐Zn‐4 , with |g lum | as 4.9 × 10 −3 and 1.3×10 −3 and relatively high photoluminescence quantum yield of 40.79 % and 45.40 %, are further assembled into a white CPL light‐emitting diode. The crystal sizes of D/L‐Cd/Zn‐n were found to be strongly correlated to the types and additional amounts of organic dyes, that the positive organic dyes allow for the preparation of > 7 mm bulks and negative dyes account for sub‐20 μm particles. This work opens a new avenue to fabricate full‐color emissive CPL composites and provides a potentially universal method for controlling the size of optical platforms.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are constructed by linking organic bridging ligands with metal-connecting points to form infinite network structures. Fine tuning the porosities of and functionalities within MOFs through judicious choices of bridging ligands and metal centers has allowed their use as efficient heterogeneous catalysts. This chapter reviews recent developments in designing porous MOFs for a variety of catalytic reactions. Following a brief introduction to MOFs and a comparison between porous MOFs and zeolites, we categorize catalytically active achiral MOFs based on the types of catalytic sites and organic transformations. The unsaturated metal-connecting points in MOFs can act as catalytic sites, so can the functional groups that are built into the framework of a porous MOF. Noble metal nanoparticles can also be entrapped inside porous MOFs for catalytic reactions. Furthermore, the channels of porous MOFs have been used as reaction hosts for photochemical and polymerization reactions. We also summarize the latest results of heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis using homochiral MOFs. Three distinct strategies have been utilized to develop homochiral MOFs for catalyzing enantioselective reactions, namely the synthesis of homochiral MOFs from achiral building blocks by seeding or by statistically manipulating the crystal growth, directing achiral ligands to form homochiral MOFs in chiral environments, and incorporating chiral linker ligands with functionalized groups. The applications of homochiral MOFs in several heterogeneous asymmetric catalytic reactions are also discussed. The ability to synthesize value-added chiral molecules using homochiral MOF catalysts differentiates them from traditional zeolite catalysis, and we believe that in the future many more homochiral MOFs will be designed for catalyzing numerous asymmetric organic transformations.

Delayed luminescence (DF), including phosphorescence and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) exhibit common and broad application prospects in optoelectronic displays, biological imaging, and encryption. Thus, the combination of delayed luminescence and circularly polarized luminescence is attracting increasing attention. The encapsulation of guest emitters in various host matrices to form host-guest systems has been demonstrated to be an appealing strategy to further enhance and/or modulate their delayed luminescence and circularly polarized luminescence. Compared with conventional liquid crystals, polymers, and supramolecular matrices, porous crystalline frameworks (PCFs) including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent-organic frameworks (COFs), zeolites and hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) can not only overcome shortcomings such as flexibility and disorder but also achieve the ordered encapsulation of guests and long-term stability of chiral structures, providing new promising host platforms for the development of DF and CPL. In this review, we provide a comprehensive and critical summary of the recent progress in host-guest photochemistry via the encapsulation engineering of guest emitters in PCFs, particularly focusing on delayed luminescence and circularly polarized luminescence. Initially, the general principle of phosphorescence, TADF and CPL, the combination of DF and CPL, and energy transfer processes between host and guests are introduced. Subsequently, we comprehensively discuss the critical factors affecting the encapsulation engineering of guest emitters in PCFs, such as pore structures, the confinement effect, charge and energy transfer between the host and guest, conformational dynamics, and aggregation model of guest emitters. Thereafter, we summarize the effective methods for the preparation of host-guest systems, especially single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SC-SC) transformation and epitaxial growth, which are distinct from conventional methods based on amorphous materials. Then, the recent advancements in host-guest systems based on PCFs for delayed luminescence and circularly polarized luminescence are highlighted. Finally, we present our personal insights into the challenges and future opportunities in this promising field.

ConspectusFor the last two decades, materials scientists have contributed to a growing library of porous crystalline materials. These synthetic materials are typically extended networks, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), or discrete materials like metal-organic cages (MOCs) and porous organic cages (POCs). Advanced porous materials have shown promise for various applications due to their modular nature and structural tunability. MOCs have recently garnered attention because of their molecularity that bestows them with many unique possibilities (e.g., solution-processability, structural diversity, and postsynthetic processability).MOCs are discrete molecular assemblies of organic ligands coordinated with either metal cations or metal oxide clusters of different nuclearities, resulting in architectures with inherent porosity. Notably, the molecular nature of MOCs endows them with easy solution-processability unattainable with traditional framework materials. To date, a number of stable MOCs have been reported, such as those based on Rh (Rh-O bond energy: 405 ± 42 kJ/mol), Fe (Fe-O bond energy: 407.0 ± 1.0 kJ/mol), Cr (Cr-O bond energy: 461 ± 8.7 kJ/mol), Ti (Ti-O bond energy: 666.5 ± 5.6 kJ/mol), and Zr (Zr-O bond energy: 766.1 ± 10.6 kJ/mol). Paddle-wheel MOCs have also shown great stability in aqueous environments due to their rigid backbones. The zirconium MOC (Zr-MOCs) family emerges as a class of very robust cages for which their high bond energy endows them with high hydrothermal stability.In 2013, we reported the first four zirconocene tetrahedrons assembled from trinuclear zirconium oxide clusters with ditopic or tritopic organic ligands. Since then, significant progress in the rational design of Zr-MOC has led to an assortment of structures dedicated to meaningful applications.In this Account, we highlight the recent progress in synthesizing Zr-MOCs and Zr-MOC-based higher dimensional frameworks and their applications dedicated in our laboratories and beyond. The general Zr-MOC synthetic strategy involves assembling Zr trinuclear clusters with organic ligands (rigid or flexible) containing various functional groups. This chemistry has afforded cages with structural versatility and active sites, e.g., amino groups, for postsynthetic modifications (PSMs). Since the extrinsic porosity of cage-based frameworks is relatively weak, the resulting frameworks are susceptible to structural rearrangement after solvent removal. To circumvent this limitation, increasing the hydrogen bond ratio and strength between interlinked cages and conducting in situ catalytic polymerizations have been reported to afford permanently porous structures amenable to host-guest reactions.To expand their potential applications, multifunctional Zr-MOCs are highly desired. Such multivariate MOCs can be attained by either employing the isoreticular expansion strategy to create MOCs with high surface areas or using mixed-ligand approaches to afford heterogeneous MOCs. In addition, amorphous MOCs, flexible organic ligands, new functionalities, and MOC-based extended networks are exciting new approaches to developing materials with structural versatility and enhanced characteristics. Thereby, we believe the stability and versatility of the Zr-MOC family hold great potential in expanding and addressing challenging applications.

Guest‐induced host–guest assembly in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) has become a critical strategy to achieve circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Herein, chiral metal–organic clusters (MOCs) induced CPL of achiral MOF are reported. Enantiopure titanium‐oxo clusters (R/S‐TOCs) are effectively loaded into the pores of a fluorescent, highly stable MOF NU‐901 thin film by using a liquid‐phase epitaxial layer‐by‐layer encapsulation method. The resulting chiral TOCs@NU‐901 MOF thin films exhibit strong chirality, intense photoluminescence, and excellent CPL performance with the highest dissymmetry factor (±0.025) reported so far for the downshifted MOF‐based materials. Further, the comparison experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that the excellent performance benefited from the strong chirality and charge transfer caused by the significant π–π interactions between the host (MOF) and guest (R/S‐TOCs). This novel chiral MOCs induced approach provides a powerful toolbox for new host–guest CPL thin film materials.

Host-guest chemistry of chiral metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has endowed them with circularly polarized luminescence (CPL), it is still limited for MOFs to systematically tune full-color CPL emissions and sizes. This work directionally assembles the chiral ligands, metal sites and organic dyes to prepare a series of crystalline enantiomeric D/L-Cd/Zn-n MOFs (n=1~5, representing the adding amount of dyes), where D/L-Cd/Zn with the formula of Cd2(D/L-Cam)2(TPyPE) and Zn2(D/L-Cam)2(TPyPE) (D/L-Cam=D/L-camphoric acid, TPyPE=4,4',4'',4'''-(1,2-henediidenetetra-4,1-phenylene)tetrakis[pyridine]) were used as the chiral platforms. The framework-dye-enabled emission and through-space chirality transfer facilitate D/L-Cd/Zn-n bright full-color CPL activity. The ideal yellow CPL of D-Cd-5 and D-Zn-4, with |glum| as 4.9 × 10-3 and 1.3×10-3 and relatively high photoluminescence quantum yield of 40.79 % and 45.40 %, are further assembled into a white CPL light-emitting diode. The crystal sizes of D/L-Cd/Zn-n were found to be strongly correlated to the types and additional amounts of organic dyes, that the positive organic dyes allow for the preparation of > 7 mm bulks and negative dyes account for sub-20 μm particles. This work opens a new avenue to fabricate full-color emissive CPL composites and provides a potentially universal method for controlling the size of optical platforms.