Solid State Multicolor Emission in Substitutional Solid Solutions of Metal-Organic Frameworks

Preparing crystalline materials that produce tunable organic-based multicolor emission is a challenge due to the inherent inability to control the packing of organic molecules in the solid state. Utilizing multivariate, high-symmetry metal-organic frameworks, MOFs, as matrices for organic-based substitutional solid solutions allows for the incorporation of multiple fluorophores with different emission profiles into a single material. By combining nonfluorescent links with dilute mixtures of red, green, and blue fluorescent links, we prepared zirconia-type MOFs and found that the bulk materials exhibit features of solution-like fluorescence. Our study found that MOFs with a fluorophore link concentration of around 1 mol % exhibit fluorescence with decreased inner filtering, demonstrated by changes in spectral profiles, increased quantum yields, and lifetime dynamics expected for excited-state proton-transfer emitters. Our findings enabled us to prepare organic-based substitutional solid solutions with tunable chromaticity regulated only by the initial amounts of fluorophores. These materials emit multicolor and white light with high quantum yields (similar to 2-14%), high color-rendering indices (>93), long shelf life, and superb hydrolytic stability at ambient conditions.