Title: Exciton Migration and Amplified Quenching on Two-Dimensional Metal−Organic Layers

Author: Lingyun Cao, Zekai Lin, Wenjie Shi, Zi Wang, Cankun Zhang, Xuefu Hu, Cheng Wang*, and Wenbin Lin*

Abstract:
The dimensionality dependency of resonance energy transfer is of great interest due to its importance in understanding energy transfer on cell membranes and in low-dimension nanostructures. Light harvesting two-dimensional metal–organic layers (2D-MOLs) and three-dimensional metal–organic frameworks (3D-MOFs) provide comparative models to study such dimensionality dependence with molecular accuracy. Here we report the construction of 2D-MOLs and 3D-MOFs from a donor ligand 4,4′,4″-(benzene-1,3,5-triyl-tris(ethyne-2,1-diyl))tribenzoate (BTE) and a doped acceptor ligand 3,3′,3″-nitro-4,4′,4″-(benzene-1,3,5-triyl-tris(ethyne-2,1-diyl))tribenzoate (BTE-NO₂). These 2D-MOLs and 3D-MOFs are connected by similar hafnium clusters, with key differences in the topology and dimensionality of the metal–ligand connection. Energy transfer from donors to acceptors through the 2D-MOL or 3D-MOF skeletons is revealed by measuring and modeling the fluorescence quenching of the donors. We found that energy transfer in 3D-MOFs is more efficient than that in 2D-MOLs, but excitons on 2D-MOLs are more accessible to external quenchers as compared with those in 3D-MOFs. These results not only provide support to theoretical analysis of energy transfer in low dimensions, but also present opportunities to use efficient exciton migration in 2D materials for light-harvesting and fluorescence sensing.

     

Full Link: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.7b02470