Photoresponsive Fe-Organic MOF materials

Photoresponsive MOF materials are exciting candidates for various applications, including, but not restricted to, controlled gas capture/storage/release. We have utilized the state-of-the-art gas-phase atomic-molecular layer deposition (ALD/MLD) thin-film technique to incorporate fully functional photoresponsive linkers into a crystalline metal-organic matrix. The ALD/MLD synthesis yields in-situ crystalline iron-azobenzene/stilbene thin films which provide a suitable environment for the efficient trans-cis photoisomerization reaction to occur. Here, we aim in ex-situ 1s2p RIXS measurements at the iron pre-edge region of various photoresponsive metal-organic thin-film samples. Our goal is to gain understanding of the changes in the local environment of iron when these materials are reversibly irradiated by UV and visible light, and to relate the structural changes to changes in the materials’ properties.