Maximized Green Photoluminescence in Tb-Based Metal-Organic Framework via Pressure-Treated Engineering

Lanthanide metal-organic frameworks are of great interest in the development of photoluminescence (PL) materials owing to their structural tunability and intrinsic features of lanthanide elements. However, there exists some limitations arising from poor matching with metal ions, thereby exhibiting a weak ligand-to-metal energy transfer (LMET) process. Here we demonstrate a pressure-treated strategy for achieving high PL performance in green-emitting Tb(BTC)(H2O)(6). The PL quantum yield of pressure-treated sample increased from 50.6 % to 90.4 %. We found that the enhanced hydrogen bonds locked the conjugated configuration formed by two planes of carboxyl group and benzene ring, enabling the promoted intersystem crossing to effectively drive LMET. Moreover, the optimized singlet and triplet states also validated the facilitated LMET process. This work opens the opportunity of structure optimization to improve PL performance in MOFs by pressure-treated engineering.

Automated summary

This study demonstrated a pressure-treated strategy to achieve high photoluminescence performance in Tb(BTC)(H2O)(6), resulting in a significant increase in the PL quantum yield. The enhancement was attributed to the strengthened hydrogen bonds and optimized states, which effectively promoted the ligand-to-metal energy transfer process. This work opens up new possibilities for structure optimization in MOFs to improve photoluminescence performance through pressure-treated engineering.