Colossal Increase in Electric Current and High Rectification Ratio in a Photoconducting, Self-Cleaning, and Luminescent Schottky Barrier NMOF Diode

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are mostly electrically insulating systems. Only recently have there been reports of MOFs showing high conductivity. However, a large void still remains in the fabrication of photoconducting MOFs, which can function under extreme conditions for advanced optoelectronic applications. This issue was addressed by self assembling an electrically active and luminescent bola-amphiphilic organic linker, dialkoxydodecyl-oligo-(p-phenyleneethynylene)dicarboxylate (OPE-C-12), with Zn-II, which led to a self-cleaning and semiconducting nanoscale MOF Zn(OPE-C-12)center dot 2H(2)O (NMOF-1). The fabricated device using NMOF-1 showed Schottky barrier behavior along with a 1000- and 1400-fold increase in current at +0.2 V in the absence and presence of light, respectively. A high rectification ratio of 47 and 83 was also observed under dark and photoirradiated condition. Along with high thermal stability, moisture resistance, and luminescence, NMOF-1 can be used in advanced optoelectronics probably even under water, being the first porous MOF material showing such properties.