Host-Guest Engineering of Coordination Polymers for Highly Tunable Luminophores Based on Charge Transfer Emissions

Aiming at the targeted construction of coordination polymer luminophores, the engineering of host-guest architectures with charge transfer based emissions is performed by utilizing the interactions between the electron-deficient 2,4,6-tri(pyridin-4-yl)-1,3,5-triazine (tpt) and electron-rich polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) motifs as acceptors and donors, respectively. Through guest modulation of a prototype coordination polymer [Cd(tpt)(1,4-pda)(H₂O)₂]·(tpt)·(H₂O)₂ (1) (1,4-H₂pda = 1,4-phenylenediacetic acid), a series of coordination polymers with different PAHs as guests, [Cd₂(tpt)₂(1,4-pda)₂]·guest (2-5) (guest = triphenylene for 2, pyrene for 3, coronene for 4, and perylene for 5), are successfully fabricated. Distinct from 1, coordination polymers 2-5 reveal unique bilayer structures with PAHs interlayer and good stability, owing to the enhanced stacking interactions between tpt motifs and PAH guests. Moreover, their emissions cover a wide range of wavelength due to the effective guest to host charge transfer interactions between donor and acceptor motifs. Their readily tunable host-guest charge transfer based emissions make them good candidates as potential luminophores.