Ligand Meta-Anchoring Strategy in Metal-Organic Frameworks for Remarkable Promotion of Quantum Yields

Aggregation is a conventional method to enhance the quantum yields (QYs) of pure organic luminophores due to the restriction of intramolecular motions (RIM). However, how to realize RIM in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is still unclear and challenging. In this work, the ligand meta-anchoring strategy is first proposed and proved to be an effective and systematic approach to restrict the intramolecular motions of MOFs for the QY improvement. By simply shifting the substituent position in the ligand from para to meta, the QY of the resulting MOF is significantly enhanced by eleven-fold. The value is even higher than that of ligand aggregates, demonstrating the strong RIM effect of this ligand meta-anchoring strategy. The introduction of co-ligand induces the appearance of visible yellow room temperature phosphorescence with a lifetime of 222 ms due to the QY enhancement and the charge transfer between the donor and accepter units. The present work thus broadens the understanding of the RIM mechanism from a new perspective, develops a novel method to realize RIM and expands the applicable objects from pure organic materials to organic-inorganic hybrid materials.