12290 | Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 12290--12306 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2020 Cite this: Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 12290 Design and properties of multiple-emitter luminescent metal–organic frameworks Shanghua Xing ab and Christoph Janiak * ab Multi-emitter luminescent metal–organic frameworks (LMOFs) possess multiple emission bands that can cover a wider spectral region, which is a prerequisite for white-light emitting and multi-dimensional ratiometric fluorescent sensing. By taking advantage of the structure features of MOFs (e.g. hybrid structure, porosity) and the various luminescence origins of LMOFs, different emission sources can be designed and combined with each other into a homogeneous solid-state LMOF phase with the desired emission properties. This feature article reviews the recent development of multi-emitter LMOFs, and focuses on the design strategies for creating multi-emitter LMOFs based on at least two emission centers. The design strategies are classified into and discussed along six categories: type I metal-linker emitters, Type II multi-metal emitters, Type III multi-linker emitters, Type IV chromophore@LMOF (chromophore incorporated into an already luminescent MOF), Type V chromophores@MOF (multi- chromophores embedded into a non-emissive MOF) and Type VI multi-heterostructure LMOF emitters. The new class of Type VI includes core–shell structured LMOF*LMOF and nanostructured LMOF/LMOF thin films on a substrate. The good spatial separation between the different emitters in their own but chemically linked LMOF phase can retain their emission properties with less interference with the other emitters. 1. Introduction Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) represent the most promis- ing multifunctional material development in recent years. 1 MOFs as functional luminescent materials benefit from a well-ordered porous structure, versatile emissive building blocks a Hoffmann Institute of Advanced Materials, Shenzhen Polytechnic, 7098 Liuxian Blvd, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China b Institut fu ¨r Anorganische Chemie und Strukturchemie, Heinrich-Heine-Universita ¨t Du ¨sseldorf, Universita ¨tsstraße 1, Du ¨sseldorf 40225, Germany. E-mail: janiak@uni-duesseldorf.de Shanghua Xing Shanghua Xing received her PhD at the State key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry at Jilin University, China in 2017 under the guidance of Prof. Ruren Xu and Assist. Prof. Guanghua Li, working on single or multi- emitter luminescent MOFs. Since 2017, she spent two years as a PD researcher at Nagoya University in the group of Prof. Masataka Nagaoka, working on the theoretical study of flexible MOFs. In 2019, she joined the group of Prof. Christoph Janiak. Her research focusses on the experimental and theoretical study of MOFs with luminescence and gas adsorption properties. Christoph Janiak Christoph Janiak is a full professor at the University of Du ¨sseldorf since 2010, with research interests in porous materials (e.g. MOFs), mixed- matrix membranes, metal nanoparticles, ionic liquids and catalysis. Until 2018 he was a visiting professor at Wuhan University of Technology and currently, he is a guest professor at the Hoffmann Institute of Advanced Materials at Shenzhen Polytechnic in China. He has (co- )authored about 530 research papers and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). Received 8th July 2020, Accepted 2nd September 2020 DOI: 10.1039/d0cc04733c rsc.li/chemcomm ChemComm FEATURE ARTICLE Published on 03 September 2020. Downloaded on 7/4/2021 12:27:13 PM. View Article Online View Journal | View Issue