Encapsulating Naphthalene in an Electron-Deficient MOF to Enhance Fluorescence for Organic Amines Sensing

Host-guest encapsulation of electron-rich naphthalene molecules into a weakly emissive porous metal-organic framework based on pi-electron-deficient (pi-acidic) naphthalene diimide tectons leads to orange-emissive crystals, which can be used to sense strongly basic organic amines in a fast response, high photostability, and tunable sensitivity. Moreover, such host-guest inclusion crystals are also a good photochromic probe for the detection of weakly basic N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and N,N-dimethylformamide molecules.