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

Abstract 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 Cu2+ centres and polyacid linkers (TATAB3−) was synthesized by solvothermal method, which contains two types of Cu24 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.