Real-Time In Situ Volatile Organic Compound Sensing by a Dual-Emissive Polynuclear Ln-MOF with Pronounced LnIII Luminescence Response.

Lanthanide metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) are promising for luminescence detection of volatile organic compound (VOC) vapors, but usually suffer from the silent or quenched Ln3+ emission. Herein, we report a new dual-emissive Eu-MOF composed of the coordinatively unsaturated Eu9 clusters that afford abundant open metal sites to form a confined "binding pocket" to facilitate the preconcentration and recognition of VOCs. Single-crystal structural analyses reveal that specific analytes can replace the OH oscillators in the first coordination sphere of Eu3+ and form a unique hydrogen-bonding second-sphere adduct tying adjacent Eu9 clusters together to minimize their nonradiative vibrational decay. With the promoted Eu3+ luminescence, the MOF realizes real-time in situ visual sensing of THF vapor (<1 s) and shows a quantitative ratiometric response to the vapor pressure with a limit of detection down to 17.33 Pa. Also, it represents a top-performing ratiometric luminescent thermometer.

Dynamic Full-Color Tuning of Organic Chromophore in a Multi-Stimuli-Responsive 2D Flexible MOF.

Developing universal stimuli-responsive materials capable of emitting a broad spectrum of colors is highly desirable. Herein, we deliberately grafted a conformation-adaptable organic chromophore into the established coordination space of a flexible metal-organic framework (MOF). In terms of the coupled structural transformations and the space confinement, the chromophore in the MOF matrix underwent well-regulated conformational changes under physical and chemical stimuli, simultaneously displaying thermo-, piezo-, and solvato-fluoro-chromism with color tunability over the visible range. Owing to the resilient nature and the reduced dimensionality of the selected coordination space, all three color modulations behaved in a sensitive and self-reversible manner, each following a linear correlation of the emission maximum with stimulus. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction of the variable-temperature structures and solvent-inclusion crystals elucidated the intricate color varying mechanisms.

Ligand-Controlled Assembly of Heteropolyoxomolybdates from Plenary Keggin Germanomolybdates and Cu-Ln Heterometallic Units.

By virtue of combining an in-situ assembly process with a stepwise synthesis in conventional aqueous solution, two series of unique organic-inorganic hybrid heteropolyoxomolybdates were constructed from plenary Keggin germanomolybdates and Cu-Ln heterometallic units and fully characterized: [H2 INA]2 H8 [LnCu(INA)4 (H2 O)6 ]2 [α-GeMo12 O40 ]3 ⋅52 H2 O (Ln=La3+ (1), Ce3+ (2), Pr3+ (3), Nd3+ (4), Sm3+ (5), Eu3+ (6); HINA=isonicotinic acid) and (NH4 )[Cu(PA)2 ][Cu(PA)2 Ln(H2 O)8 ][α-GeMo12 O40 ]⋅10 H2 O (Ln=Nd3+ (7), Sm3+ (8), Eu3+ (9); HPA=picolinic acid). The most remarkable structural characteristic of compounds 1-6 was that their molecular units were defined by three discrete plenary Keggin [α-GeMo12 O40 ]4- polyoxoanions and two organic-inorganic hybrid heterometallic [LnCu(INA)4 (H2 O)6 ]+ moieties, whereas compounds 7-9 exhibited a nice-looking 1D chain-like structure that was built from plenary [α-GeMo12 O40 ]4- polyoxoanions, pendent [Cu(PA)2 ] complexes, and bridging {[Cu(PA)2 ][Ln(H2 O)8 ]}3+ heterometallic groups. Notably, two different pyridine carboxylic acid ligands led to the discrepancy between the two structure types. To the best of our knowledge, compounds 1-9 constitute the first examples of plenary Keggin heterometallic germanomolybdates that include Cu-Ln-organic subunits. Further studies revealed that compounds 3 and 8 exhibited fast adsorption capacity for cationic dyes methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) in water. Moreover, compounds 3 and 8 could quickly and selectively adsorb MB from a mixture of MB/methyl orange (MO) or MB/azophloxine (Apo).