Single Coordination Polymer Research Articles

Mechanical Bending and Modulation of Photoactuation Properties in a One-Dimensional Pb(II) Coordination Polymer

With emergent research on stimuli responsive materials, dynamic crystals are at the forefront of investigation. However, research on the mechanical properties of coordination polymers (CPs) is still in its infancy. Elastic deformation induced by pressure and photoactuation are rare occurrences in CPs, let alone their combination in a single CP. Here, we report a one-dimensional (1D) CP comprising PbBr2 chains with 3-fluoro-4’-styrylpyridine arms showing excellent elasticity and photomechanical properties. A slender crystal can be bent to make a circle and write different shapes with restoration of original shape upon removal of the applied force. In addition, photomechanical properties triggered by [2+2] cycloaddition of the olefinic ligand can be modulated easily by variation of the crystal sizes. Crystals with bigger width show destructive photosalient effects while the smaller ones show plastic deformation like bending, twisting, curling etc. upon UV irradiation. This example provides avenue for designing CPs for multi-stimuli responsive actuating properties.

Doped Luminescent Lanthanide Coordination Polymers Exhibiting both White-Light Emission and Thermal Sensitivity.

Multifunctional lanthanide coordination polymers (CPs) have the advantages of acting in two or more fields simultaneously. Herein, two single lanthanide CPs, formulated as LnL(D/L-Hlac)(H2O)2·0.5H2O (Ln = Eu (1), Tb (2); H2L = 4,4'-(pyridine-3,5-diyl)dibenzoic acid) and their doped lanthanide analogue Tb0.9373Eu0.0627L(D/L-Hlac)(H2O)2·0.5H2O (3) were prepared through hydrothermal methods. Luminescence measurements reveal that 1 displays red photoluminescence and its Commission International ed'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates are almost invariant in the temperature range from 80 to 300 K, while the emission color of 2 changes from yellow to green and its CIE coordinates change from (0.36132, 0.56365) at 80 K to (0.30448, 0.45566) at 300 K. Significantly, 3 not only displays white-light emission with CIE coordinates of (0.32999, 0.33406) but also exhibits a thermal sensitivity of 2.27% K-1 at 230-300 K. The obviously larger thermal sensitivity in 3 in comparison to that of 1.07% K-1 for 2 demonstrates that lanthanide CPs with both a heat-sensitive fluorescent thermometer and high-efficiency white-light emission can be expected by doping Eu(III) ions into Tb(III)-based CPs.