Lanthanide Metal–Organic Framework Microrods: Colored Optical Waveguides and Chiral Polarized Emission

Lanthanide metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) have received much attention owing to their structural tunability and widely photofunctional applications. However, successful examples of Ln-MOFs with well-defined photonic performances at micro-/nanometer size are still quite limited. Herein, self-assemblies of 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (BTC) and lanthanide ions afford isostructural crystalline Ln-MOFs. Tb-BTC, Eu@Tb-BTC, and Eu-BTC have 1D microrod morphologies, high photoluminescence (PL) quantum yields, and different emission colors (green, orange, and red). Spatially PL resolved spectra confirm that Ln-MOF microrods exhibit an optical waveguide effect with low waveguide loss coefficient (0.012≈0.033 dB μm-1 ) during propagation. Furthermore, these microrods feature both linear and chiral polarized photoemission with high anisotropy.