Magnolia-like terbium-based metal-organic frameworks hierarchical architectures: Solvent-induced synthesis, microstructure and enhanced luminescent properties

Abstract An efficient and facile route for the solvent-induced synthesis of magnolia-like terbium-based metal-organic frameworks (Tb-MOFs) architectures has been developed at room temperature. The effect of ethanol volume ratio (R) on the microstructure and morphological evolution of the Tb-MOFs architectures has been systematically investigated. Interestingly, the blooming level of magnolia-like architectures increases with R values. A possible formation and evolution mechanism has been proposed. Moreover, the photoluminescence properties of the as-obtained Tb-MOFs architectures are discussed in detail. The result indicates that the emission intensity of the samples initially increased and then decreased with increasing R values. And, the samples synthesized at R = 0.3 with a blooming magnolia-like architectures have optimal luminescent properties and fluorescence lifetime owing to the fewer defect. Since its simplicity and low-cost, this developed synthetic route is promising for the controllable preparation of other functional micro/nano MOFs materials with improved properties.