Photoswitchable Adsorption in Metal-Organic Frameworks Based on Polar Guest-Host Interactions

Abstract

Reversible remote-controlled switching of the properties of nanoporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is enabled by incorporating photoswitchable azobenzene. The interaction of the host material with different guest molecules, which is crucial for all applications, is precisely studied using thin MOF films of the type Cu2 (BDC)2 (AzoBipyB). A molecule-specific effect of the photoswitching, based on dipole-dipole interactions, is found.

Keywords: azobenzene; guest-host interactions; metal-organic frameworks; photoswitching; thin films.