All Roads Lead to Rome: Tuning the Luminescence of a Breathing Catenated Zr-MOF by Programmable Multiplexing Pathways

A zirconium-based metal–organic framework (Zr-MOF) with a 2-fold catenated breathing structure is designed, whose framework contracts in a similarly consecutive manner responsive to solvent (S), temperature (T), or pressure (P). As a result, photoluminescence color tuning (PLCT) can be achieved progressively from blue to yellow, via S, T, or P pathways, leading to multiple PL states with memory nature. Based on this, a 3D PLCT coordinate system is established. Along each stimulation pathway, the starting, ending, and multiple intermediate PLCT states can be recognized and plotted on the S, T, and P axes of the coordinate system. Furthermore, multiplexing node-transfer pathways are programmed among the axes, in which two or three kinds of outer stimuli (S/T/P) are implemented successively and alternatively, leading to various stages of PL states. This multiplexing approach provides a new strategy to control and utilize the multiresponsiveness of PL-MOFs for intriguing applications such as composite nonvolatile data storage and so on.