Single-crystal metal-organic frameworks for electronic and opto-electronic devices

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of well-ordered hybrid organic-inorganic porous crystalline materials arising from reticulation of metal ions and organic ligands. Because of the versatile skeletons and pores, MOFs offer numerous possibilities for interplay with electrons, photons, excitons, and spins, making them appealing for various device applications. Until now, lots of devices focus on polycrystalline MOF materials, while single-crystal MOFs could enable the potential of higher carrier transport and device stability rather than their polycrystalline counterparts because of the low defect concentrations and extra single-crystal features. Nevertheless, the synthesis of single-crystal MOFs and morphology control are challenging. This perspective provides a brief overview of single-crystal MOF devices and presents some unexplored opportunities for applying single-crystal MOFs to electronic and opto-electronic devices. Key challenges must be solved to realize single-crystal MOF device applications.