Utilization of Physical Anisotropy in MOFs via Alignment Control with Liquid Crystal
발표자
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초록
내용
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) represent crystalline materials constructed from various combinations of metal and organic units to often yield anisotropic porous structures with anisotropic physical and electronic properties. While the orientation control of MOF crystals is crucial to fully utilize their structure-driven intrinsic properties, post-synthetic methods to align the crystals remain scarce. Here we demonstrate the use of nematic liquid crystals (LCs) to control MOF crystal orientation. In a composite system of LCs and MOFs, modification of the nematic LC director results in a facile multi-directional alignment of MOF crystals. Depending on the alignment, the crystals exhibit distinct optical properties. As our approach is applicable to various combinations of MOFs and LCs, UV-polymerizable LC monomers can be used to obtain freestanding composite films, offering potential applications as LC polymer-based mixed-matrix separation membranes.