Tunable electrical conductivity of a new 3D MOFs: Cu-TATAB

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a kind of functional porous materials with the potential applications in gas adsorption and separation, catalysis, energy storage, sensor, and electrical conductivity . However, the insulating nature of the mostly MOFs limits their application in the electronic field. A new three-dimensional (3D) metal-organic framework composed of Cu 2+ centres and polyacid linkers (TATAB 3− ) was synthesized by solvothermal method , which contains two types of Cu 24 cages. The crystal structure is cubic and each Cu is coordinated by five oxygen atoms which can be confirmed by the single crystal X-ray diffraction, infrared spectra and TGA analysis. The conductivity for this 3D MOF is increased by four orders of magnitude after doping with 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and realizes the transformation from an insulator to semiconductor.