Highly luminescent silver-based MOFs: Scalable eco-friendly synthesis paving the way for photonics sensors and electroluminescent devices

Luminescent multifunctional nanomaterials are important because of their potential impact on the development of key technologies such as smart luminescent sensors and solid-state lightings. To be technologically viable, the luminescent material needs to fulfil a number of requirements for integration into real-world devices: facile and cost-effective fabrication, a high quantum yield, structural robustness, and long-term chemical stability. To achieve these requirements, an eco-friendly and scalable synthesis of a highly photoluminescent, multistimuli responsive and electroluminescent silver-based metal-organic framework (Ag-MOF), termed “OX-2” was developed. The high synthetic yield (at least 10 g of purely crystalline OX-2 via one pot reaction), together with its exceptional photophysical and mechanically resilient properties that can be reversibly switched by temperature and pressure make this material stood out over other competing luminescent materials. The potential use of OX-2 MOF as a good electroluminescent material was tested by constructing a proof-of-concept MOF-LED (Light Emitting Diode) device, further contributing to the rare examples of electroluminescent MOFs known to date. The results reveal the huge potential for exploiting the highly luminescent Ag MOF, where OX-2 may serve as a multitasking platform to engineer innovative photonic technologies.