Metal-organic frameworks with fine-tuned interlayer spacing for microwave absorption

Xue Zhang; Xuelei Tian; Na Wu; Shanyu Zhao; Yutian Qin; Fei Pan; Shengying Yue; Xinyu Ma; Jing Qiao; Wei Xu; Wei Liu; Jiurong Liu; Meiting Zhao; Kostya Ken Ostrikov; Zhihui Zeng

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adl6498

Metal-organic frameworks with fine-tuned interlayer spacing for microwave absorption

Sci Adv. 2024 Mar 15;10(11):eadl6498. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adl6498. Epub 2024 Mar 13.

Authors

Xue Zhang¹, Xuelei Tian¹, Na Wu², Shanyu Zhao³, Yutian Qin⁴, Fei Pan⁵, Shengying Yue⁶, Xinyu Ma⁶, Jing Qiao⁷, Wei Xu^{8

9}, Wei Liu¹⁰, Jiurong Liu¹, Meiting Zhao⁴, Kostya Ken Ostrikov¹¹, Zhihui Zeng¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
³ Laboratory for Building Energy Materials and Components, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Institute of Molecular Aggregation Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Basel 4058, Switzerland.
⁶ School of Aerospace Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
⁷ School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China.
⁸ Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Beijing 100049, China.
⁹ RICMASS, Rome International Center for Materials Science Superstripes, Via dei Sabelli 119A, Roma, 00185, Italy.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
¹¹ School of Chemistry and Physics and QUT Centre for Materials Science, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia.

Abstract

Designing a functional, conductive metal-organic framework (cMOF) is highly desired. Substantial efforts have been dedicated to increasing the intralayer conjugation of the cMOFs, while less dedication has been made to tuning the interlayer charge transport of the metal-organic nanosheets for the controllable dielectric property. Here, we construct a series of conductive bimetallic organic frameworks of (Zn_xCu_3-x) (hexahydroxytriphenylene)₂ (ZnCu-HHTP) to allow for fine-tuned interlayer spacing of two-dimensional frameworks, by adjusting the ratios of Zn and Cu metal ions. This approach for atomistic interlayer design allows for the finely control of the charge transport, band structure, and dielectric properties of the cMOF. As a result, Zn3Cu1-HHTP, with an optimal dielectric property, exhibits high-efficiency absorption in the gigahertz microwave range, achieving an ultra-strong reflection loss of -81.62 decibels. This study not only advances the understanding of the microstructure-function relationships in cMOFs but also offers a generic nanotechnology-based approach to achieving controllable interlayer spacing in MOFs for the targeted applications.