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A Technical Guide for Performing Spectroscopic Measurements on Metal-Organic Frameworks
Published on: April 28, 2023
Functional group engineering in metalloporphyrin-based covalent organic frameworks for enhancing sensing performance
Jia-Li Jian1,2,3, Tian-Hao Wang1,2,3, Yi-Ming Xu2
1College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou Fujian 350116, P. R. China.
Nanoscale
|May 14, 2026
Summary
Functional group engineering in covalent organic frameworks (COFs) significantly boosts chemiresistive gas sensing. Introducing methoxy groups into Cu-COF-366 enhances ammonia detection performance and stability.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Chemical Engineering
Background:
- Chemiresistive gas sensors based on covalent organic frameworks (COFs) suffer from low carrier concentration and poor charge mobility, limiting their performance.
- Porphyrin-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and COFs are promising materials for gas sensing applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To enhance the performance of porphyrin-based Cu-COF-366 for chemiresistive gas sensing through functional group engineering.
- To investigate the effect of donor-acceptor (D-A) interactions on gas sensing properties by introducing electron-donating/withdrawing groups.
Main Methods:
- Synthesized modified porphyrin-based Cu-COF-366 materials by incorporating electron-donating/withdrawing groups.
- Investigated the influence of functional groups on photogenerated charge separation, carrier density, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation.
- Evaluated the ammonia (NH3) sensing performance, including response, selectivity, repeatability, and long-term stability.
Main Results:
- The optimized Cu-COF-366-OCH3 exhibited a remarkable ammonia response of 825.9%, a 25.9-fold improvement over the unmodified Cu-COF-366-H.
- Methoxy group introduction enhanced charge mobility and increased ROS generation, acting as active sensing sites.
- The modified COF demonstrated excellent selectivity, repeatability, and long-term stability for ammonia detection.
Conclusions:
- Functional group engineering via D-A interaction modulation is an effective strategy to overcome intrinsic limitations in COF-based gas sensors.
- The methoxy-functionalized Cu-COF-366 presents a promising material for high-performance, mediator-free chemiresistive ammonia sensing.
- This work provides a molecular design paradigm for developing advanced COF-based sensors for gas detection.
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