MOF-on-MOF heteroepitaxy: perfectly oriented [Zn2(ndc)2(dabco)]n grown on [Cu2(ndc)2(dabco)]n thin films

Abstract

We report the successful heteroepitaxial growth of perfectly oriented hybrid MOF thin films. By employing step-by-step liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE), [Zn₂(ndc)₂(dabco)]_n was grown on [Cu₂(ndc)₂(dabco)]_n, thus demonstrating that the MOF-on-MOF deposition scheme developed for powdered microcrystalline MOF materials can also be applied in connection with LPE for MOF thin films or multilayers. The deposition was monitored by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy, the resulting MOF heterostructures were characterized using IR spectroscopy and different types of X-ray diffraction (XRD)-based techniques. The results suggest that the LPE method is a promising way to fabricate and grow MOF heterostructures, and also demonstrates the potential of [Cu₂(ndc)₂(dabco)]_n MOF thin films as substrates for the LPE-based growth of different MOFs on top.