No Cover Image

Journal article 698 views 82 downloads

Solvatochromic covalent organic frameworks

Laura Ascherl, Emrys Evans Orcid Logo, Matthias Hennemann, Daniele Di Nuzzo, Alexander G. Hufnagel, Michael Beetz, Richard H. Friend, Timothy Clark, Thomas Bein, Florian Auras

Nature Communications, Volume: 9, Issue: 1

Swansea University Author: Emrys Evans Orcid Logo

  • 57569.pdf

    PDF | Version of Record

    © The Author(s) 2018. s This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

    Download (1.54MB)

Abstract

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are an emerging class of highly tuneable crystalline, porous materials. Here we report the first COFs that change their electronic structure reversibly depending on the surrounding atmosphere. These COFs can act as solid-state supramolecular solvatochromic sensors...

Full description

Published in: Nature Communications
ISSN: 2041-1723
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2018
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57569
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract: Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are an emerging class of highly tuneable crystalline, porous materials. Here we report the first COFs that change their electronic structure reversibly depending on the surrounding atmosphere. These COFs can act as solid-state supramolecular solvatochromic sensors that show a strong colour change when exposed to humidity or solvent vapours, dependent on vapour concentration and solvent polarity. The excellent accessibility of the pores in vertically oriented films results in ultrafast response times below 200 ms, outperforming commercially available humidity sensors by more than an order of magnitude. Employing a solvatochromic COF film as a vapour-sensitive light filter, we demonstrate a fast humidity sensor with full reversibility and stability over at least 4000 cycles. Considering their immense chemical diversity and modular design, COFs with fine-tuned solvatochromic properties could broaden the range of possible applications for these materials in sensing and optoelectronics.
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Funders: The authors are grateful for funding from the German Science Foundation (DFG; Research Cluster NIM) and the Free State of Bavaria (Research Network SolTech). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ ERC Grant Agreement No. 321339. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 670405).
Issue: 1