Stimuli-Responsive Naphthalenediimide Cd-MOFs Tuned by Different Aliphatic Dicarboxylic Acids with Extended Spacers

A series of novel Cd metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) (1-9) with different extended spacers with seven kinds of the aliphatic dicarboxylic acids as secondary building linkers based on N,N'-di(4-pyridylacylamino)-1,4,5,8-naphthalenediimide (NDI-A) have been designed and synthesized by changing the volume ratio of solvents under solvothermal conditions. In addition, the secondary building linkers of aliphatic dicarboxylic acids have different spacer lengths, resulting in different structures of complexes 1-9. So, their packing structures are affected by the degree of distortion of the NDI-A ligand, the different aliphatic dicarboxylic acids ligands, and the hydrogen-bonding patterns. Complexes 1-9 showed stimuli-responsive emission tuned by different aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with extended length spacers under UV light irradiation, accompanied by the color change from light orange to dark brown, and achieved reversible photochromic under heating, which indicates that they could serve as secret erasable inks. Moreover, complexes 1-9 exhibited selective vaporchromic behavior to methylamine (MA), and the vaporchromic sample could be recovered after washing with MeOH. It is worth noting that the preparation of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-NDI-MOF films enables the photochromic and vaporchromic properties of complexes 1-9 to apply in practice. In addition, complexes 1-9 exhibited good fluorescence properties as sensing probes toward 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) with lower limits of detection. In short, this work provides a broad field to explore the creative NDI-MOF materials with photoactive and luminescent properties.