Light Harvesting in Microscale Metal–Organic Frameworks by Energy Migration and Interfacial Electron Transfer Quenching

Microscale metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) were synthesized from photoactive Ru(II)-bpy building blocks with strong visible light absorption and long-lived triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer (3MLCT) excited states. These MOFs underwent efficient luminescence quenching in the presence of either oxidative or reductive quenchers. Up to 98% emission quenching was achieved with either an oxidative quencher (1,4-benzoquinone) or a reductive quencher (N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylbenzidine), as a result of rapid energy migration over several hundred nanometers followed by efficient electron transfer quenching at the MOF/solution interface. The photoactive MOFs act as an excellent light-harvesting system by combining intraframework energy migration and interfacial electron transfer quenching.