Rendering High Surface Area, Mesoporous Metal-Organic Frameworks Electronically Conductive.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Electrochemistry

Background:

• Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) offer tunable porosity but often lack electronic conductivity.
• Developing conductive MOFs is crucial for applications in electronics and energy storage.
• Existing conductive MOFs may sacrifice porosity for conductivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and synthesize a novel MOF-polythiophene composite with both high electronic conductivity and retained porosity.
• To investigate the synthesis method for creating a conductive MOF composite.
• To characterize the electronic and porous properties of the resulting material.

Main Methods:

• Incorporation of a pentathiophene derivative into a zirconium MOF (NU-1000) via solvent-assisted ligand incorporation (SALI).
• Electrochemical polymerization of the incorporated oligothiophene on conductive glass to form the conductive composite (Epoly).
• Assessment of porosity using decane vapor uptake via quartz crystal microgravimetry (QCM).

Main Results:

• The MOF-polythiophene composite (Epoly) exhibits tunable conductivity, reaching 1.3 × 10^-7 S cm^-1, comparable to 3-D conductive MOFs.
• The composite retains significant porosity, with a pore volume ~74% of the unmodified MOF.
• The material displays both micro- and mesoporosity with a BET surface area of ~1,600 m²·g^-1, exceeding other conductive MOFs.

Conclusions:

• A novel MOF-polythiophene composite was successfully synthesized, demonstrating comparable electronic conductivity to existing conductive MOFs.
• The composite retains high micro- and mesoporosity, a significant advantage over many conductive MOFs.
• This work presents a new pathway for creating highly conductive and porous materials for advanced applications.