By integrating a tailor-made donor-acceptor (D-A) ligand in a metal-organic framework (MOF), a material with unprecedented features emerges. The ligand combines a pair of cyano groups as acceptor with four sulfanylphenyls as donors, which expose each a carboxylic acid as coordination sites. Upon treatment with zinc nitrate in a solvothermal synthesis, the MOF is obtained. The new material combines temperature-assisted reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) and intersystem crossing (ISC). As these two mechanisms are active in different temperature windows, thermal switching between their characteristic emission wavelength is observed for this material. The two mechanisms can be activated by both, one-photon absorption (OPA) and two-photon absorption (TPA) resulting in a large excitement window ranging from ultraviolet (UV) over visible light (VL) to near infrared (NIR). Furthermore, the emission features of the material is pH sensitive, such that its application potential is demonstrated in a first ammonia sensor.

This article is Open Access

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