Electron- and ion-conducting metal-organic frameworks

S. Sunah Park

Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology

sarahpark@postech.ac.kr

The development of conducting metal?organic frameworks (MOFs) provides an avenue for creating high surface area conductors with potential applications ranging from electrocatalysts and chemiresistive sensors to supercapacitors. Highly ordered and infinite charge/ion transport pathways could be realized in conducting MOF platforms to yield high carrier mobilities. However, it is difficult to engineer electrical conductivity in MOFs because they generally have flat bands determined by highly localized organic states and weak hybridization with the inorganic units. Using intermolecular π-stacking interactions as topology defining factors of MOFs, four isostructural materials of general formula M₂(TTFTB) (M = Mn, Co, Zn, and Cd; TTFTB^4- = te trathiafulvalene tetrabenzoate) were synthesized, and their single crystal conductivities were studied. M₂(TTFTB) exhibit a striking correlation between their single-crystal conductivities and the shortest S···S interaction defined by neighboring TTF cores, which inversely correlates with the ionic radius of the metal ions. These results provide a systematic blueprint for designing new electrically conductive MOFs based on the through-space charge transport formalism. This presentation will discuss strategies for synthesizing and utilizing the conductive and microporous MOFs.