Assembly of particles into long-range, three-dimensional (3D), ordered superstructures is crucial for the design of a variety of materials including plasmonic sensing materials. Spherical colloidal particles (mainly silica or polymers such as polystyrene and acrylates) have traditionally been used to build assembled superstructures. Recently, great progress has also been achieved in the assembly of spherical and polyhedral inorganic-based particles. However, this progress has not led to the use of other families of purely organic or hybrid metal-organic materials as functional building blocks to construct 3D ordered superstructures. The use of such crystalline particles has been precluded mainly by limited control over monodispersity, particle-shape homogeneity and colloidal stability. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a fascinating class of hybrid porous crystalline materials with distinct features including high porosity, high specific surface area, tremendous structural diversity, and chemical tailorability. Constructing long-range 3D ordered superstructures based on polyhedral MOF particles still remains challenging. Here, we aim to develop novel plasmonic sensing materials by assembling polyhedral MOF particles into long-range 3D ordered superstructures, and exploit these materials towards colorimeteric detection of gases such as CO2 using the full visible color spectrum.
Project end date: 08/09/20