Terpyridine-Based Metal-Organic Cage with Enhanced Emission via Coordination-Induced Rigidity

Inorg Chem. 2024 Sep 30;63(39):18103-18109. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c02852. Epub 2024 Sep 17.

Abstract

Realizing the regulation of photophysical properties by precisely controlling the molecular composition and configuration, thereby obtaining high-performance optical materials, remains of great significance. Due to the directionality and reversibility of the coordination bond, coordination-driven self-assembly endows the molecule with customized thermodynamically stable structures and desired properties. In this paper, a luminous metal-organic cage [Zn12L6] (S) was elaborately designed and quantitatively synthesized by self-assembly of tetrapodal TQPP chromophore-containing terpyridine ligand L with Zn2+. Complex S possessed a rigid cage-like structure, which endows a higher fluorescence quantum efficiency both in solution (∼88%) and neat solid (16%) than the corresponding ligand L. Further, using complex S as the photoactive component, two light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were successfully fabricated and the emission of pure white light (CIE coordinates: 0.3341, 0.3300) was achieved. These results afford a method to obtain enhanced luminescence performance via the formation of rigid coordination-driven supramolecular architectures.