Luminescent materials are a part of our everyday life featuring in lighting, television screens, etc. The recent emergence of lanthanide-based metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) has illuminated the future development of new functional luminescent materials. Research into Ln-MOFs is still at its early stages but they have shown promise in the development of effective novel compounds.
This paper by Zhang et al. takes Ln-MOFs to the next level and presents the first example of mixed-lanthanide MOFs. The work combines Eu3+, Gd3+ and Tb3+ as co-doped ions on to one MOF framework. The co-doped Ln-MOF is capable of excitation-dependent mutual conversion between blue, white and yellow emission chromaticity…I am guessing this is where the rather whimsical title has come from.
This succinctly written communication gives a first look at the synthesis and testing of this exciting new Ln-MOF and gives an idea of where the research into Ln-MOFs might be heading in the future.
A highly luminescent chameleon: fine tuned emission trajectory and controllable energy transfer
Huabin Zhang, Xiaochen Shan, Zuju Ma, Liujiang Zhou. Mingjian Zhang, Ping Lin, Shengmin Hu, En Ma, Renfu Li and Shaowu Du
J. Mater Chem. C, 2014, 2, 1367-1371. C3TC31624F
H. L. Parker is a guest web writer for the Journal of Materials Chemistry blog. She currently works at the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, the University of York.
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